Reader's Corner No. 98: Law Rules Oxford Comma Necessary, None of My Projects Want to be SPA's, and Designing a Font Based On Old Handwriting

Springtime is in the air! Excessive pollen aside, anybody who lives in NC knows to cherish this perfect, 70 degrees and sunny weather while it lasts. So if you're in North Carolina we won't blame you for choosing to enjoy the sunny day rather than catching up on this week's Reader's Corner. That being said, if you do choose to indulge, we're covering a wide variety of topics in this edition! Read on to keep up with new grammar rules, the pace of change in web development, and learn how to transform old cursive handwriting into a digital font.


Take That, AP Style! Court of Law Rules The Oxford Comma Necessary

Michael Nicholson

Source: The Write Life

Takeaway: As all grammar enthusiasts know, the Oxford comma is a perfectly valid hill upon which to die. The article discusses a court case where a law, written without an Oxford comma, was ruled to refer to the final pair of items in the list as a single entity, rather than two. This interpretation caused the judge to rule in favor of Maine dairy drivers in a class action labor dispute with an award of over $10 million in overtime wages.

Tags: #Grammar, #Pedantic, #Specificity


Help! None of My Projects Want to be SPA's

David Gouch

Source: Jason Goldstein

Takeaway: A cautious-but-sincere effort to try out a trendy technology stack for a new project. (The trendy technology was invented eight years ago, so, again, emphasis on cautious.) In attempting to use a technology, the author questions the motivation: Should we so quickly take on the costs and challenges of learning a new tech if we can’t easily say what that tech gives us in return.

Tags: #TechnologyStack, #Learning


Designing A Font Based On Old Handwriting

David Minton

Source: Smashing Magazine

Takeaway: A font that mimics handwriting, whether it be original, or based on historical documents can be a work of art in onto itself. But, the devil is in the details, as Carolyn Porter described in her Smashing Magazine post describing the journey she took to transform samples from WWII era love letters into a modern font. As it turned out, the process was much more involved and complex than she originally anticipated, but fascinating to follow the steps she took to create the more than 1,300 glyphs that constitute the completed P22 Marcel Script font.

Tags: #Typography


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