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Re:Technical Writing for Developers by rpmisms on Saturday July 16, 2022 @01:19AM (#32115428)
Dev with a flair for writing over here. Using semicolons is a good practice for separating clauses, especially if you're being verbose

My mother gave me my first car; it was an beautiful 2002 Honda Civic with a falling-off bumper and bald tires.

You could replace the semicolon with a comma thus:

My mother gave me my first car, a beautiful 2002 Honda Civic with a falling-off bumper and bald tires.

That feels a little more natural, but is harder to read accurately.

It's useful in legal and technical writing, but not necessarily great for everyday life. Personally, I don't really use semicolons; you may have different opinions on their usage.

It's basically an arrow in text.

this -> that

as opposed to a comma, which feels more like

this and also that

Re:Technical Writing for Developers by gaws on Saturday July 16, 2022 @03:57PM (#32121392)
> Using semicolons is a good practice for separating clauses, especially if you're being verbose

Can't a period do that?

Re:Technical Writing for Developers by rpmisms on Sunday July 17, 2022 @10:45PM (#32133996)
Yep. Sometimes that feels too abrupt, though. Even if you're trying to be pointed.