While reviewing new (to Raku) Complex Numbers exercise

Exercism Building Exercism
1

I noticed while reviewing the Raku Complex Numbers exercise port that the description has a bullet list that is prefaced with a “colon” ended statement, but has “sentence continuation” like you might do with a “semicolon” ended statement.

Should we make the change in Problem Specification, in description.md?

--- a/exercises/practice/complex-numbers/.docs/instructions.md
+++ b/exercises/practice/complex-numbers/.docs/instructions.md
@@ -2,11 +2,9 @@
 
 A **complex number** is expressed in the form `z = a + b * i`, where:
 
-- `a` is the **real part** (a real number),
-
-- `b` is the **imaginary part** (also a real number), and
-
-- `i` is the **imaginary unit** satisfying `i^2 = -1`.
+- `a` is the **real part** (a real number)\
+- `b` is the **imaginary part** (also a real number)
+- `i` is the **imaginary unit** satisfying `i^2 = -1`
 
 ## Operations on Complex Numbers
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2

Can you elaborate on the significance of the change? It’s not clear to me how this might affect the readability of the instructions so some more context would be useful. Thanks

3

I believe that this differs from even the other bullet points in the file.

But generally;

  • bullet points with a semicolon complete a sentence.
  • augment what is said.
  • provide a way to end the statement on their own, and terminate as a sentence would individually.

While this style:

  • The points may be independent of what the colon style provides
  • Each point does not necessarily “continue” the start of the sentence above
  • colon style bullets usually do not end in punctuation

I hope that demonstrates, and accurately… I am not a grammatologist, and have also been known to devisinvent new words as well.

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4

FWIW @kotp is grammarianologistically suggesting:

Before

A **complex number** is expressed in the form `z = a + b * i`, where:

- `a` is the **real part** (a real number),

- `b` is the **imaginary part** (also a real number), and

- `i` is the **imaginary unit** satisfying `i^2 = -1`.

After

A **complex number** is expressed in the form `z = a + b * i`, where:

- `a` is the **real part** (a real number)
- `b` is the **imaginary part** (also a real number)
- `i` is the **imaginary unit** satisfying `i^2 = -1`
2 Likes
5

Thanks. I don’t have strong feelings one way or the other, but I suppose we can make it more grammatically correct. The changes don’t seem to make things less clear, which is what I was worried about.