Punc-, punc-, punc-, punctuation

I remember learning punctuation in school. There were rigid rules for, what it turns out, is a fluid and evolving tool to make written language more understandable. Came across this interesting piece the other day on the subject.

In casual correspondence my rule of thumb has always been, why use a bunch of different punctuation marks, when a dash - (m-dash, please) - will suit so many purposes?

This made me think about the etiquette of letter writing. While it still is used in business, personal letter writing has declined precipitously. It has become so much easier to pick up the phone. But now a whole new world of language usage is evolving through technology. As David Crystal writes above, "The biggest punctuation changes since the Renaissance are about to hit us, because of the Internet."