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General Discussion

Corey Leveen
Corey Leveen
3,301 Points

Treehouse's use of double quotes

During some challenges Treehouse includes periods in the names of things surrounded in double quotes. For example this excerpt from a challenge:


Let's presume that you're in a git repository that has git-flow installed. You're ready to work on a new feature called "profiles." What command would you use to get started?


You'll notice that a . was included in the "profiles." name. When typed into the command line, "profiles." returns an error, as it was supposed to be "profiles" without the "." Is Treehouse correct in including the period inside the quotes? I thought what was in double quotes is supposed to be exactly what is supposed to be entered.

Thanks for your help

3 Answers

Stone Preston
Stone Preston
42,016 Points

You're ready to work on a new feature called "profiles."

I think the period is there because that is correct english syntax. If a sentence ends with quotation marks the punctuation is supposed to go inside the quotes.

If a word is quoted at the end of a sentence, the period goes within the quotations. I do believe the English may use it outside the quotes, but in 'Merica it's generally used inside. When Treehouse uses the quotes in an example, I don't think it's meant to be copy and pasted. I've seen instructions that uses quotes when referencing an object, but obviously you wouldn't use quotes when referencing an object. It's likely there just to tell you this is the word you;ll be using.

I think what the OP meant was that since these are coding tutorials and syntax is key, then for the sake of clarity anything quoted should really be the command and any punctuation should be left out unless relevant to the code for instance ".social-media" would be acceptable as the "." denotes the class in CSS.

Corey Leveen
Corey Leveen
3,301 Points

Adam that's exactly what I meant, thanks