Topic: Punctuation in the Computer Age

[Gambler]

Earlier today I was posting something in here, I can't remember what or where.  Gee I must be getting old.  Anyway, in my reply I mentioned a file name at the end of a sentence. 

Example "To ensure the proper running of your computer delete the file command.com."

It looked bad.  So bad that I added a few more words to the sentence so I wouldn't have a ".com." at the end.  Then we come up with talking about internet websites.  Do we say "The best search engine is google.com."  or do we drop the .com and just use google?

Okay, maybe google isn't a good example but you can tell what I mean.

So do the rules of punctuation and typing need to be adjusted so that .com. looks right or do we drop off the extension?  I mean a period is supposed to be the end of a sentence and yet due to the vagaries of some idiot years ago, we have domains and extensions that use periods and we're stuck with them in important places.

I've seen people type things out like googledotcom.  But that seems very trite and contrived.

What's the answer?

[MrCue]

you could always say, Google is the best search engine. That solves your problem of typed punctuation.

[Inquiry]

That's a good question. We should probably ask a scientist or something.