From owner-freebsd-chat Thu Jun 1 11:57:32 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mta03-svc.ntlworld.com (mta03-svc.ntlworld.com [62.253.162.43]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1B76137B722; Thu, 1 Jun 2000 11:57:26 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mark@ukug.uk.freebsd.org) Received: from parish.my.domain ([62.253.86.40]) by mta03-svc.ntlworld.com (InterMail vM.4.01.02.27 201-229-119-110) with ESMTP id <20000601185722.WLHP290.mta03-svc.ntlworld.com@parish.my.domain>; Thu, 1 Jun 2000 19:57:22 +0100 Received: (from mark@localhost) by parish.my.domain (8.9.3/8.9.3) id SAA01077; Thu, 1 Jun 2000 18:01:45 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from mark) Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 18:01:44 +0100 From: Mark Ovens To: Troy Settle Cc: Mark Blackman , Greg Lehey , Stephen McKay , Tim Vanderhoek , freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Punctuation conventions (was: cvs commit: src/games/fortune/datfiles fortunes) Message-ID: <20000601180144.A233@parish> References: <20000601111501.A11561@sophos.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0.1i In-Reply-To: ; from troy@picus.com on Thu, Jun 01, 2000 at 06:50:18AM -0400 Organization: Total lack of Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Thu, Jun 01, 2000 at 06:50:18AM -0400, Troy Settle wrote: > > Ok, so we're agreed. Two spaces at the end of a sentence is what we're > taught in the US, UK, and AU. Any one from another English speaking ^^^^ Really? Not when I was at school, mind you it was, erm, late 60's, early '70's. Also ISTR Greg Lehey saying a single space was the AU way as well. > country care to share the rules from their freshman keyboarding (typing) > class? > > Just a wild guess here, but I think the rule stems from the laziness of > some people to abbr. certain words. You see, abbreviations also require a > period, but if they're not at the end of a sentence, it's noted from the > single space following. This is also the case in Mr., Mrs., and Ms. > Though one wonders why an abbreviation at the end of a sentence doesn't > get two periods followed by two spaces. This is certainly an odd feature > (bug?) in our language. > > The fact that some (most?) people don't use two spaces at the end of a > sentence is probably due to ignorance, indifference, or laziness. I for > one, check for those two spaces as part of the proof reading process > (though I'm not always diligent about proof reading). It gets really > irritating when doing web pages in a WYSIWYG editor, as most are fond of > putting a ' ' in the source, which makes for very ugly HTML. > > Another spot where these rules bug the hell out of me, is when typing an > address in Word. I was taught in high school that there are two spaces > between the state and zip code (i.e. 'City, ST 12345'). Most frustrating > to see that red wavy line telling me I have an error when I know that I > don't. > > -- > Troy Settle > Network Analyst > Picus Communications > 540.633.6327 > > > ** -----Original Message----- > ** From: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG > ** [mailto:owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Mark Blackman > ** Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2000 6:15 AM > ** To: Greg Lehey > ** Cc: Stephen McKay; Tim Vanderhoek; freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.org > ** Subject: Re: Punctuation conventions (was: cvs commit: > ** src/games/fortune/datfiles fortunes) > ** > ** > ** I've not done any text analysis of e-mails to discern empirical > ** usage patterns, however a quick poll of five of my British colleagues > ** (I'm a "colonial") suggests that in Britain, two spaces is > ** the rule taught in English and typing classes. > ** > ** I wouldn't be surprised to discover that a number of people > ** writing e-mails these days a) completely ignore their teachers > ** or b) never took any classes. > ** > ** > ** On Thu, Jun 01, 2000 at 09:50:56AM +0930, Greg Lehey wrote: > ** > > ** > I didn't say I was conventional :-) I use the two space convention > ** > because I find it more convenient. But most text written in > ** Australia > ** > or England has a single space after the full stop. Period. > ** > > ** > ** -- > ** Mark Blackman,Internet Systems Administrator,Sophos Anti-Virus > ** e-mail: tmb@sophos.com http://www.sophos.com > ** US Support: +1 888 SOPHOS 9 UK Support: +44 1235 559933 > ** > ** > ** To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > ** with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message > ** > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message -- ...and on the eighth day God created UNIX ________________________________________________________________ FreeBSD - The Power To Serve http://www.freebsd.org My Webpage http://ukug.uk.freebsd.org/~mark/ mailto:mark@ukug.uk.freebsd.org http://www.radan.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message