Point of difficulty in how punctuation should be handled in and around quotations relating to software logging statements

Question

I sent an e-mail to somebody in the office this morning that had to do with some logging statements in our software, and I wasn't quite sure how to handle commas and such around the quotation marks. Generally if you're quoting something or somebody, you handle it like this:

Sue said, "We don't have to go to work on Tuesday," paused for a moment, then finished, "so I'm thinking that might be a good time to get a few things done around the house."

When you're simply citing a phrase or term or something though, it's often more like this:

The phrase "to kill two birds with one stone" refers to achieving two goals with only one line of effort.

That being said, take VB.NET source code that looks like this:

Select Case someVariable
    Case 1
        Log("Unable to make appointment - Houses In Use On That Day")
        DoSomething1("Unable to make appointment - Houses In Use On That Day.")
        'Notice the period in the second line; this is the only difference.
    Case 2
        Log("Unable to make appointment - Houses In Use On That Day")
        DoSomething2("Unable to make appointment - Something Came Up At The Last Minute.")
    .
    .
    .
End Select

How then should the following e-mail be punctuated, captialized, and such? If it weren't simply using phrases where every word was already capitalized in the logs, what kind of impact would that have on capitalization? We're basically using Southeastern American English in intra-office e-mails:

For 1, it’s logging, “Houses In Use On That Day,” but for 2, it’s logging a mixture of that and, “Something Came Up At The Last Minute.”

Answer 1

When in doubt with software AND/OR error messages, just always take a new line. Every single time.

For 1, it’s logging:

“Houses In Use On That Day"

but for 2, it’s logging a mixture of that and:

“Something Came Up At The Last Minute."

The problem could be related to the

then

statement,or possibly the

ifels

statement. (People keep using them no matter how many times told not to.)

They're not paying you to take home newlines - use them constantly with code or indeed any technical-engineering scene!

---

HUGE RELATED TIP

Don't forget the plural of anything in software IS LIKE FISH, IT IS THE SAME:

Never an "s" !!!

Add three UIButton at the top please. Replace these two UIButton with two new UIScrollView.

Never an "s" !!!