Re: and/or?

[Janice Gelb <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM>]

nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il wrote:
> Raj wrote:
>> Technical documentation does not have any place for
>> ambiguities like "and/or".
> 
> Like any expression, it can be used sloppily.  
> But Merriam-Webster has no trouble defining it.
> The Microsoft Encarta dictionary has no
> trouble defining it.  The American Heritage
> dictionary has no trouble defining it.  If
> it's ambiguous in context, I think that's
> the fault of the writer rather than of 
> the expression.
> 

One more aspect to using the "and/or" construction
that I haven't seen mentioned (sorry if I missed it)
is that other languages do not have this construct so
if your documentation is being translated, or being
read by someone with English as a second language,
the translator or reader is likely to pick one of
the two meanings rather than seeing two and inferring
three meanings (and, or, and both).

-- Janice

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