http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Hertrick [mailto:m.hertrick@neovera.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 2:49 PM
To: current-users@netbsd.org
Subject: Re: English in NetBSD


Forget the way things have been.  If it's flawed, change it.  Language
evolves, so don't fight it.

> And considering the comma, I'm a 100% certain that placing a comma
> before "and" in Dutch is a grammatical error. I'm not entirely sure if
> that's the case in English as well, but I think it probably is. It
> doesn't seem logical to me, since 'and' effectively replaces the =
comma.

I think you're safer using a comma to replace the 'and' rather than =
'and' to
replace the comma.  Do not use 'and' to separate any list items, even =
the
last item.

Instead of "To my parents, Ayn Rand and God." or "To my parents, Ayn =
Rand,
and God." use:

"To my parents, Ayn Rand, God."

The 'and' in this case is understood and does not need to be written.  =
It's
like the Latin method someone mentioned, but instead of 'and' we use a
comma.

Can anyone give one good reason why the 'and' needs to be there?  All it
seems to do is complicate things and doesn't really provide any meaning.

~Mike.