"Anne" == Gutenberg9443 <Gutenberg9443@aol.com> writes:
Anne> Since this topic came up, I have given it a lot of Anne> thought. I think I have the answer. Anne> We do not have to know the specific page number if we're Anne> quoting the Bible or Shakespeare. That can be carried over Anne> to other texts as well. (I hope my underlining shows up in Anne> all email.) Anne> Bib entry: Anne> Richardson, Samuel. Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded. Anne> orig. pub. 1740-1741. n.p.: Project Gutenberg, n.d. Anne> footnote or endnote: Anne> Richardson. Pamela. Section IV, Letter VII, par. 4. Anne> Would not this serve most purposes? Anne> Please discuss this WITHOUT FLAMING. The world has flames Anne> enough without them showing up here. I have two objections, that I would like to know how you would solve: - existing books quote other books through pages. If you want to find in a book a discussion that is quoted by page, how are you going to find it, if you don't have page numbers? Of course, if you have an exact quotation you can search for it, but assume that you have just a description, or maybe a translation. - assume that you want to quote a book that you have only in a paper edition; to quote it in your style, you need to manually count the paragraphs, both when quoting and when checking a quotation; wouldn't the standard way of quoting pages of a reference edition (usually, the only edition) be better? Of course, you said: Anne> Would not this serve most purposes? Yes, most maybe, but not all. And most is not enough. You said also Anne> to other texts as well. (I hope my underlining shows up in Anne> all email.) No, it doesn't. Here too you are assuming that other people use the same tools that you use. A good tool is one that adapts itself to an unknown situation, and does not make assumptions. Discarding page numbers in reference works makes assumptions on other people's working methods; the result is a less flexible tool. Carlo