Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 14:16:14 +0300 From: Anatoly Vorobey <mellon@pobox.com> To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: make.conf Message-ID: <19980829141614.09323@techunix.technion.ac.il> In-Reply-To: <19980829123759.B29560@keltia.freenix.fr>; from Ollivier Robert on Sat, Aug 29, 1998 at 12:37:59PM %2B0200 References: <199808290058.RAA20957@apollo.backplane.com> <Pine.BSF.3.96.980828212840.9718F-100000@localhost> <19980829123759.B29560@keltia.freenix.fr>
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You, Ollivier Robert, were spotted writing this on Sat, Aug 29, 1998 at 12:37:59PM +0200: > [ moved to -chat ] > > According to Tim Vanderhoek: > > I usually break people down into two groups: Those who use two > > spaces after a period, and those who don't. If they don't, > > ignore 'em since they hardly pay attention to what they write, > > anyways. :) > > You're telling me that in English, you have to put two spaces after a > period ? It is the first time I've heard of this rule... Traditionally, an inter-sentence space was larger in English typography than an inter-word space, but not necessarily twice as large; however, with typewriters (which were universal before computers were invented ;)) this could only be achieved by putting _two_ spaces after a period. Nowadays it seems to be not as universal as Tim wants to put it ;) Anyway, here's the excerpt from alt.usage.english FQ: spaces between sentences ------------------------ This issue is more suited to comp.fonts than here. In recent years, printers typesetting with proportional fonts have generally *not* made the inter-sentence space any greater than the inter-word space, although greater inter-sentence space can be found quite often in older books. Traditionally, students in typing classes have been taught to put two spaces between sentences. Some people never like the extra space, some always do, and some like it if the text is monospaced but not if it is proportionally spaced. The traditional UNIX text formatter, troff, uses extra space; in TeX it is optional, but turned on by default. The extra space, if used, need not be as much as the normal interword space (it can be less in TeX, but not in troff). Advocates of the extra space argue that the practice speeds reading by making it easier to pick out sentences. And sometimes it can aid clarity. A passage such as: | "What's pluperfect?" is a reasonably reasonable question that has | yet to be sweetly but fully answered on a.u.e. I answer the | questions about Erzherzoginen (Habsburg archduchesses). is far from clear on first reading. -- Anatoly Vorobey, mellon@pobox.com http://pobox.com/~mellon/ "Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly" - G.K.Chesterton To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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