Question mark or period?

Question

Is this sentence a question or a statement (or other). It ends with a question, so I used a question mark. (Just ignore the tech jargon.)

I get that this should show me the PID of the SIGTERMing process and I successfully compiled it, but how do I use it?

Edit: Another question, should it be written as (which is correct and which is clearer?)

I get that this should show me the PID of the SIGTERMing process and successfully compiled it, but how do I use it?

You correctly used the question mark in that sentence, but the first sentence in your question should also end with a question mark instead of a period! — Jerry, Commented May 24, 2013 at 16:56
The second sentence seems ambiguous. It's unclear whether this or I compiled it. — Stan, Commented May 24, 2013 at 17:08
The interrogative independent clause is incorrectly tagged on to a nice statement. Use separate sentences for the sake of semantics. I know, don't worry about starting a sentence with a conjunction, haha. "I get that (phrase) and I successfully compiled it. But how do I use it?" — Kris, Commented May 25, 2013 at 6:14
Seeing how you don't even end an actual question with a question mark ("Is this sentence a question or a statement (or other)."), I would say you should go ahead and use periods everywhere. Seriously though, I would really like to know what the "or other" part is about. — RegDwigнt, Commented May 25, 2013 at 21:21

user44617user44617 · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-24 16:53:25Z

1

This is simply a question with some preamble. I welcome preamble in order to set some context to the question.

To answer the second question, you could at least change "get" with "understand".

answered May 24, 2013 at 16:53

user44617

1

I think you could use either sentence and the "I" is optional, but it probably would be better grammar to use "understand" instead of "get" just to make things clear because I assume you mean understand rather than get which is more idiomatic.
– Sam
Commented May 24, 2013 at 16:59
@Soccem I don't quite get your first sentence (but agree with your second).
– Jeff
Commented May 24, 2013 at 18:27

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