Re: Extra space after punctuation marks

[Greg A. Woods]

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[ On Wed, January 17, 1996 at 06:59:12 (-0700), Robert M. McClure wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: Extra space after punctuation marks
>
> This subject was discussed at length in the typetalk mail list a
> short while back.  Consensus seems to have been that double spaces
> are strictly an artifact of old typing habits.  If, for visual
> reasons, a little more space after periods, colons, exclamation
> points, etc. is desired, most commentators consider it generally
> acceptable (and often used).  No commentators advocated two full
> spaces.  One suggestion was to use an en-space between words and
> an em-space between sentences.  I, personally, like this, but some
> do not.  (Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.)

It seems there's still some confusion between the use of two space
characters in input, and for fixed-width font displays/output/etc.,
vs. the use of space between sentences in final typeset output.

I do want, as you suggest, to use wider, and more stretchable, spaces
between sentences, than between words.

I also need to allow mulitple spaces in the input stream to be treated
as I said in my last message -- i.e. multiple spaces in non @Verbatim
text must be treated as one.

However, I'm also suggesting that the troff algorithm of using
puntuation followed by two spaces or a newline (in the input stream) may
be the best way to discern the intended end of a sentence.  You may
still find in some troff documentation and guides that the recommended
practice is to always start a new sentence on a new line in the input.

I myself have never been able to come up with a better algorithm than
this, esp. if the input text must represent technical information.

-- 
                                                        Greg A. Woods

+1 416 443-1734                 VE3TCP                  robohack!woods
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