> For example, 'women and children' means of course 'if X is a woman OR X is a child'.
Well, no, “women and children” alone doesn't mean that, “if X is a member of women and children” means “if X is in women OR X is in children”.
But that's consistent with AND and OR as boolean operators in programming (it's inconsistent with the way &-and-| symbols are used as set operators in some programming languages, though; ∪ and ∩ would be better, but aren't in ASCII.)
Well, no, “women and children” alone doesn't mean that, “if X is a member of women and children” means “if X is in women OR X is in children”.
But that's consistent with AND and OR as boolean operators in programming (it's inconsistent with the way &-and-| symbols are used as set operators in some programming languages, though; ∪ and ∩ would be better, but aren't in ASCII.)