3 ms·
Great article as usual, but I found it hard to read due to the use of en-dashes without spaces. E.g this sentence: However, only operations on a single docume
by tveita 11y ago
Great article as usual, but I found it hard to read due to the use of en-dashes without spaces.
E.g this sentence:
However, only operations on a single document are atomic–queries which access multiple keys may read and write inconsistent data.
which I spent a minute trying to parse as:
However, only operations on a single document are "atomic-queries", which access multiple keys may read and write inconsistent data.
- aidenn0 11y agoIndeed; every style guide I've read recommends either unspaced em-dashes or spaced en-dashes.
- chipotle_coyote 11y agoI'd bet this is due to a "smart typography" processor that converts runs of hyphens to em- or en-dashes. The standard typing convention for decades has been to use "--" to indicate an em-dash, and that's certainly what I've learned. Many smart converters (including SmartyPants, the one John Gruber created as a companion to Markdown) make that conversion. However, there's also the TeX convention of converting "--" to an en-dash and requiring "---" for an em-dash; some processors will use that standard by default, like Pandoc and MultiMarkdown. If you're typing "--" for em-dash but you're unknowingly using a processor that turns that into en-dashes, well, you get this. (At some point, Tumblr converted their internal Markdown processor from "--" for em-dash to "--" for en-dash, and hundreds of my tech blog posts now look stupid because all the em-dashes have become em-dashes. Thanks, Tumblr.)
- doug1001 11y agonice one! i've seen the same problem but didn't know why (always reluctant to eliminate myself as the root cause). Agreed that re-wiring 20+ year old print-to-digital-symbol conversions on one side then doing it again on the other side--all under the hood is a questionable design decision.