News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Insider trading has been rife on Wall Street, academics conclude. Parent comment

Re:Insider trading has been rife on Wall Street, academics c... by jnordwick on Sunday February 11, 2018 @06:22PM (#16355408)
I did some work one time for a patent attorney. When he was teaching me how to draft patents, I being on the minimalist side would always balk at repetition - such a long lists of items that are especially synonymous or things already stated elsewhere. He agreed that they were kind of dumb and repetitious but the purpose was to have it on multiple places in case it was vague (or too specific!) in any single description. It annoyed me to no end.

Also the recent Maine dispute over the oxford comma kind of made me understand that better.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Insider trading has been rife on Wall Street, academics c... by dctoedt on Monday February 12, 2018 @01:31PM (#16360724)
> long lists of items

I came up as a patent attorney; I always found it useful to create defined terms and use them (in initial caps) as needed, in the same vein as defining a variable in software.

[ Parent | on HN ]