Re: lynx-dev lynx2.8.2dev.19 patch #6 (em dash = --)

[Philip Webb]

990315 Klaus Weide wrote: 
> On Mon, 15 Mar 1999, Leonid Pauzner wrote:
>> * — (&#x2014) now display as "--" (popular requests) - LP
>> *   now display as two   (popular requests),
>>   previous definition of HT_EM_SPACE now renamed to HT_EN_SPACE. - LP
> I remember seeing requests for the "--", but not for the     change.
> Maybe the  —  should be changed, but     left as it is?
> The change introduces "  " in some places, but in some contexts
> this might be collapsed later into 1 space anyway (possibly in attributes?).
>     should be as wide as an 'm' (or 'M'?)
> which would mean to leave it as it is.
> I don't think making it wider helps understanding of any texts.
>  —  should also be as wide as an 'm' (or 'M'?),
> but leaving it as one '-' makes some texts harder to read
> so there is a better reason for the change.

as someone who pays attention to laying material out for easy reading,
i would vote to add both these changes,
which have a basis in traditional professional secretarial style,
which was based on fixed-space typewriting.
as for the width of  1 em , that belongs in the world of printing,
which has always had variable-space fonts (since Caxton?),
not the very different world of on-screen WWW text-browsing,
which retains the fixed-space layout from typewriter days,
even if some WWW jargon has been imported from the printing world.
i'd say `  ' is as useful for readability as `--':
both can help a bit here & there, depending on context.

On Mon, 15 Mar 1999, Leonid Pauzner wrote without explanation:
> Tom: please discard my LYOptions.c changes in #6 patch. 

that doesn't (i hope) mean discard the useful part about em's ...

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