Re: Extra space after punctuation marks

[Franck Arnaud]

Greg Woods:

> I would argue that it is indeed proper, and that it is only lack of
> formal training that has prevented it from being widely known.  After
> all, most computer users don't have formal training in using a
> typewriter keyboard.

It may be a convention for typewritten material. The typography of 
books or newspapers is not decided by typists or computer 
users though.

> I've heard claims that it is/was a typographical convention to use a
> "wide" space between sentences, and a minimum "narrow" space between
> words in a sentence.  

It was definitely (in English) at some time. The question is whether or 
not it still is.

> It is most definitely a feature of troff [...]

Blake McBride:

> TeX also automatically adds extra space at the end of sentences.  I find it
> hard to imagine that Knuth could get this wrong  :-).

Well, I don't think the opinion of computer scientists outside of computer 
science is worth much, especially given the tendency of computer scientists to 
reinvent square wheels when round wheels have been proven more effective by 
practitioners in other fields. (This attitude is sadly shared with other 
professions getting into computers and ignoring the published computer 
science literature).

LaTeX's default style for example is known to be one of the worst thing 
that happened to book design.

I don't remember where I read about double-spaces at the end of sentences, 
but it actually mentionned Knuth by name as being wrong. Well, he may have 
been right, but I'd like to hear from typographers.

> It seems to me this practice of dropping the extra (wide) space between
> sentences is a recent thing (since the mid-80's),

It was much earlier (thirties?) according to my reading (and lousy 
memory).

> At the very least, and regardless as to what's currently "standard", I think
> there is enough difference of opinion and taste to warrant an enhancement 
> to Lout.

Yes, if there's a mode for double-spacing, and a mode for ignoring double 
spaces all the time, everyone will benefit compared to the current 
compromise.

--
Franck Arnaud <internet address@hidden> <cis 100041,375>