"Formal" is in the mind of the reader... While it's the job of a good writer to covey his or her meaning to the reader, there's really no foolproof way of doing so, and that is especially true in the internet age, where things you write are being read around the world, by a host of different cultures. To my mind, your version (using proper modern grammar) was the more formal, while my version (using a more archaic manner of speech... "I then" is so rarely used anymore) sounded more playful to my ear.
As for "iambic tetrameter" and so forth, I stand in awe of your linguistic prowess. I can see why Perl appeals to you, being a programming language designed by a linguist. Thanks for sharing your story of "MS Word user to poetical programmer" :-)
-
Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
-
Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:
<code> <a> <b> <big>
<blockquote> <br /> <dd>
<dl> <dt> <em> <font>
<h1> <h2> <h3> <h4>
<h5> <h6> <hr /> <i>
<li> <nbsp> <ol> <p>
<small> <strike> <strong>
<sub> <sup> <table>
<td> <th> <tr> <tt>
<u> <ul>
-
Snippets of code should be wrapped in
<code> tags not
<pre> tags. In fact, <pre>
tags should generally be avoided. If they must
be used, extreme care should be
taken to ensure that their contents do not
have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent
horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor
intervention).
-
Want more info? How to link
or How to display code and escape characters
are good places to start.
|
