When English usage rules fail

The standard usage rule of placing punctuation inside quotation marks causes an unnecessary problem for new application developers. Grammar Girl notes that British writers can decide on the inside/outside usage based on context. American writers must put punctuation inside the quotation marks, even if it causes problems in technical writing.

For reasons that might become apparent at a later date, I decided to try my hand at Android application development. Using the guidance provided on the Android development site, I dutifully downloaded and configured Eclipse and the Android development kit. If you're not one who does this often, the setup can be tricky, so it's good to follow the instructions exactly.

When I reached the step of creating my first application, I followed the steps on the Creating an Android Project page.



If I use My First App. as the name of, um, my first app, the form doesn't regard it as a valid name. Note that the dialog box doesn't let me proceed; the Next button is grayed out.



If I remove the period that is inside the quotation mark and name my application My First Application, I can move on to the next step.