[Taxacom] globalnames?

[Paul Kirk]

Author abbreviations: punctuation (and diacriticals) in author
abbreviations is ignored in determining an appropriate form to avoid
ambiguity thus any author named Bull would have initials added to
distinguish them. However, to follow your 'logic' forward ... Bulliard
is indeed unique and easily recognized even for the untutored user but
am I correct in assuming you would support the use of Smith rather than
the unambiguous Sm., A.H.Sm., J.Sm. etc, etc, for all 120 Smiths who are
plant name authors? And Smith is not now the most common surname/family
name!

Incidentally, I am against including author citations anywhere except in
hard core nomenclature and taxonomy - most users, untutored or
otherwise, should not see them - that they continue to be used (often
copied from one incorrect source to another) outside the areas mentioned
is indeed a "relic of ancient times".

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Geoffrey Read
Sent: 18 September 2009 00:02
To: Kevin Richards
Cc: Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] globalnames?

Well I'm sorry but now I'm back to still wondering if the poster pdf 4th
box 'petalodes' names are poster author mistakes.  And even if intended
it's a difficult example for the non-initiated to follow.

On author abbreviations (botanical or zoological) - they're a relic from
ancient times. Why on earth would anyone perpetuate their use? Not
untutored user friendly. So Bull with a full stop equals Bulliard is
never confusable for Bull without a full stop equals just Bull? I don't
think so.

Off topic but similarly absurd is the continuation of the preoccupation
of some editors that one should never judiciously spell out genus names,
even when there's several different genera being discussed in a para.
And a paper I saw recently gave the genus involved more or less as an
aside once in the intro - you had to really hunt to find it - then no
more in the rest of the text - just the one letter representation.
Crazy, and irritating.

Geoff

Find out about CABI's global summit on 'Food security in a climate of change' at www.cabiglobalsummit.com 
19 - 21 October 2009, London, UK.

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