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

[David Combs]

About the em-dash,

What is easier to read of these two:

Now is the time -- so they say -- for all good men to come...

Now is the time--so they say--for all good men to come...



When the output font is TYPEWRITER, FIXED WIDTH, etc, it
looks (to me) a lot nicer with a space on each side of
the two-hyphens.

To my eyes, the "--" binds a lot closer to the character
to the left, sort of like a single hyphen does.

It should at least be an option for the html engine, so
each of us can get what WE find the EASIEST to read.

Myself, I prefer the extra space as a visual cue that the
"--" is a BIG ("low precedence") separator, separating BIG
blocks of text, NOT, as does a hyphen, two adjacent characters
or two parts of a compound-word.

Here's another example text I just grabbed and hacked:


   The Edge Gallery is working on a documentary project about the use
   and effects of depleted uranium (DU) weapons. These new generation of
   anti-tank shells are made from the waste product of the nuclear
   industry, yet Britain and America have defined DU as a conventional
   firearm. The use of DU in weapons -- that can be spread around the test
   ranges and battlefields of the world -- is an ingenious solution to the
   nuclear industry's paralysing problem of what to do with nuclear
   waste. By any criteria they fit the definition of a chemical and
   radiological weapon. In Britain and America when DU is produced as a
   by-product of uranium enrichment it is classified as nuclear waste,
   yet as a weapon it becomes 'conventional'.

versus:

   The Edge Gallery is working on a documentary project about the use
   and effects of depleted uranium (DU) weapons. These new generation of
   anti-tank shells are made from the waste product of the nuclear
   industry, yet Britain and America have defined DU as a conventional
   firearm. The use of DU in weapons--that can be spread around the test
   ranges and battlefields of the world--is an ingenious solution to the
   nuclear industry's paralysing problem of what to do with nuclear
   waste. By any criteria they fit the definition of a chemical and
   radiological weapon. In Britain and America when DU is produced as a
   by-product of uranium enrichment it is classified as nuclear waste,
   yet as a weapon it becomes 'conventional'.





 My preference is more apparent when the em-dash is buried in the 
 middle of a lot of densly-packed text--and here I'm on-the-fly 
 trying to make-up an example--that's at least ten lines long. Again: 
 My preference is more apparent when the em-dash is buried in the 
 middle of a lot of densly-packed text--and here I'm on-the-fly 
 trying to make-up an example--that's at least ten lines long. Again: 
 My preference is more apparent when the em-dash is buried in the 
 middle of a lot of densly-packed text--and here I'm on-the-fly 
 trying to make-up an example--that's at least ten lines long. Again: 
 My preference is more apparent when the em-dash is buried in the 
 middle of a lot of densly-packed text--and here I'm on-the-fly 
 trying to make-up an example--that's at least ten lines long. Again: 
 My preference is more apparent when the em-dash is buried in the 
 middle of a lot of densly-packed text--and here I'm on-the-fly 
 trying to make-up an example--that's at least ten lines long. Again: 
  

versus

 My preference is more apparent when the em-dash is buried in the 
 middle of a lot of densly-packed text -- and here I'm on-the-fly 
 trying to make-up an example -- that's at least ten lines long. Again: 
 My preference is more apparent when the em-dash is buried in the 
 middle of a lot of densly-packed text -- and here I'm on-the-fly 
 trying to make-up an example -- that's at least ten lines long. Again: 
 My preference is more apparent when the em-dash is buried in the 
 middle of a lot of densly-packed text -- and here I'm on-the-fly 
 trying to make-up an example -- that's at least ten lines long. Again: 
 My preference is more apparent when the em-dash is buried in the 
 middle of a lot of densly-packed text -- and here I'm on-the-fly 
 trying to make-up an example -- that's at least ten lines long. Again: 
 My preference is more apparent when the em-dash is buried in the 
 middle of a lot of densly-packed text -- and here I'm on-the-fly 
 trying to make-up an example -- that's at least ten lines long. Again: