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#1 2005-08-10 20:55:06
- hynkle
- New Member
- Registered: 2005-08-08
- Posts: 4
Two Spaces
I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I learned to type putting two spaces at the end of each sentence. Textile doesn’t seem to respect this. It outputs the two spaces as two spaces rather than two spaces and a . I don’t know if there’s some setting I could change, or one or two lines of code I could add somewhere… I haven’t gone searching through the code yet because I don’t really know what I’m doing and experimenting wastes a lot of time if someone just knows the answer off the top of their heads.
Is this something easy to implement, or should I just deal with it (or go experimenting)?
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#2 2005-08-10 21:43:37
- Andrew
- Plugin Author
- Registered: 2004-02-23
- Posts: 730
Re: Two Spaces
Huh?
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Re: Two Spaces
> I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I learned to type putting two spaces
> at the end of each sentence
Just out of curiosity: What language are you writing in? It’s the first time I heard of such a rule, but it wouldn’t suprise me, if it actually existed in some lesser known language.
For most languages it would be very irritating if Textile converted regular spaces to html-entities for non-breaking spaces, so it’s doubtful such functionality will make it into Textile.
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#4 2005-08-10 22:16:40
- zem
- Developer Emeritus
- From: Melbourne, Australia
- Registered: 2004-04-08
- Posts: 2,579
Re: Two Spaces
Just out of curiosity: What language are you writing in? It’s the first time I heard of such a rule, but it wouldn’t suprise me, if it actually existed in some lesser known language.
That is (or was?) taught in English typing lessons.
I’m not sure why H assumes it should be convereted to two spaces and a nbsp though.
Alex
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Re: Two Spaces
Strange rule. The theory would be to implement a sentence-spacing CSS attribute to achieve it. But I’ve check several printed english-speaking material, mainly american novel, and the spacing between sentences is the same as between words.
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Re: Two Spaces
I read something on this whole issue not that long ago. I think it was a holdover from typewriter days, and the theory was that modern typesetting techniques built into most electronic systems alleviate the need for the double space for readability… grr…I wish I could find the article now that I actually need to reference it…
After enduring years of Art School, mild mannered Owen Waring noticed some unusual changes… the constant bombardment of criticism, it seems, had altered his DNA. Half pixel pusher, half programmer, he had become…. THE BIZARTIST
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Re: Two Spaces
The two-spaces “rule” exists in public schools and nowhere else. And, God willing, soon it won’t even exist there.
You cooin’ with my bird?
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#8 2005-08-11 00:01:54
- Mary
- Sock Enthusiast
- Registered: 2004-06-27
- Posts: 6,236
Re: Two Spaces
“…in public schools and nowhere else…”
Do you know, it took forever for me to “get” that, then took forever to un-“get” it?
In any case, I echo Alex: “I’m not sure why… it should be converted to two spaces and a nbsp…” Wouldn’t that be three spaces?
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Re: Two Spaces
Ah so its a typewriter thing… we’ve got the same kind of trouble in french (the disapearing of uppercase accented characters). Just forget it (or use it, anyway the HTML will strip the double space) and use real typo :)
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#10 2005-08-11 00:24:56
- hynkle
- New Member
- Registered: 2005-08-08
- Posts: 4
Re: Two Spaces
Hmm, I never realized that not everyone did this (well, I realized that some people didn’t do this, as I have a friend who steadfastly refuses to put any spaces between punctuation and the next sentence).
I’m not sure why H assumes it should be convereted to two spaces and a nbsp though.
Sorry. I had meant to type one space and one . (I’m currently nocturnal, and being up at this hour has thrown my brain for such a loop that it apparently decided to take a holiday. while I was writing that post.)
One of my real-life aquaintances also said it was left over from typewriter usage. And now, yes, I do recall that my high school QWERTY typing class told me that I was supposed to space twice… I knew that my mom always did it before, but I had refused to (out of laziness for one keystroke per sentence).
the theory was that modern typesetting techniques built into most electronic systems alleviate the need for the double space for readability
Apparently just a theory. On my computer at any rate (using either Arial or Helvetica; don’t remember which), the space after a period is exactly the size of the one between words.
A sentence-spacing CSS attribute would definitely be ideal, but unfortunately doesn’t exist. Even if it did exist, I’m not quite sure to trust my computer to put one space after the period in “Dr. Chandra” but two after the one in “…for dinner. He didn’t…” And I certainly wouldn’t want to have to encase every sentence in tags so that it could tell they were sentences.
I guess it doesn’t really matter that there’s only one space after the words. I don’t read my blog often enough for it to bother me.
I just find it strange that I never thought the sentences on other sites looked too jammed together, but the ones on my blog just jumped out at me.
Thanks for the comments.
Last edited by hynkle (2005-08-11 00:28:04)
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Re: Two Spaces
hynkle: probably the spacing looks like one space because web browsers collapse multiple spaces into one.
Basically, outside of people who use MSWord and type the two spaces like they were taught, there’s HTML which collapses to one space, and there’s professional typesetting software which uses incredibly complicated algorithms to do word spacing (which is really something of an art form).
You cooin’ with my bird?
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#12 2005-08-11 03:48:51
- hynkle
- New Member
- Registered: 2005-08-08
- Posts: 4
Re: Two Spaces
Yeah. My basic wish is that web browsers would use that same complicated algorithm. Meanwhile, it’s not bothering me too much. I just thought that if I could change it, I would.
Dreamweaver has an option (hidden way deep down somewhere in its preferences) to convert two spaces input into the WYSIWYG editor into a space and a in the actual code, so I at least know that I’m not the only one who had the habit of doing this. So long as I’m not alone, I don’t mind being a little weird.
Last edited by hynkle (2005-08-11 03:49:44)
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