

Space Invaders - Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period. - jazzdev
http://www.slate.com/id/2281146/pagenum/all/

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serichsen
I think that the issue of text editing and typesetting should be held
separate.

When editing a text, I am operating on a character string. In my editor, I can
jump forward and backwards over sentences. The editor can discern these
periods from others because they are followed by two space characters.

When typesetting a text, it gets a proportional font, and the space left empty
between sentences is set as the typesetter wants resp. the typesetting rules
dictate.

Do not confuse "two space characters" of a character stream with "a double
space" of typeset text.

Of course, WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") editing of text would need
to be very much aware of such issues, but mostly is not. I think that WYSIWYG
editing is a bad idea, anyway.

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Semiapies
So, most people he encounters deliberately do this, most people who don't also
do this _think that they should be_ , and yet he feels confident saying
they're wrong. "Bold" is an understatement.

It's a arbitrary convention either way, as he admits. Invoking "writers,
editors, typographers, and others" means very little in the context of
_correspondence_ , personal or otherwise.

I've been teaching myself Emacs and having decent success in teaching myself
various shortcuts. Re-teaching myself to _not_ put two spaces after a sentence
in prose? _Ha._

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mturmon
The hugely important point, completely overlooked by the article, is: is the
text in monospace or not? If it's monospace, two spaces typically looks
better. That's why old-fashioned typewriter people use two spaces.

If it's typeset, the number of spaces really should be taken care of by the
justification system (as in TeX) and the point of the article is moot.

Aside, this is the article at which I vowed to no longer read Manjoo. The S/N
is too low.

