Re: How to write down a language design?

At 10:23 PM 11/1/2003 +0100, you wrote:
>Hello ladies and gentlemen,
>
>Please view this as a kind of brainstorming query to get myself ideas
>how other people handle this matter. And here is the matter:
>
>How do you keep notes of your creations? Especially I am talking about
>the case of an unusual grammar and/or syntax. Which way do you prefer -
>tons of examples plus explanations? Or some more abstract description?
I used to mainly use a lot of examples with explanations, but I have moved
more toward stating rules and then illustrating with examples as needed to
make things clear enough that I can come back later and still figure out
what I was talking about. I have come to think that the former method is
sometimes better for hashing out structure, and the latter is sometimes
better for explaining it.

Those are my methods in a nutshell. It actually involves a lot of scrawled
notes on many small pieces of paper and such. Sometimes they come together
nicely in a language. Sometimes they aren't as brilliant as I first
thought, and they come to nothing. Sometimes they get lost under the couch
for months at time. There's a certain amount of Destiny and Fate that goes
into the creation of a conlang. ;)

Mia.