4 ms·

I used to be an em dash over-user but have calmed down quite a bit in that department over the last several years. My current idée fixe is the archaic ellipsis

I used to be an em dash over-user but have calmed down quite a bit in that department over the last several years. My current idée fixe is the archaic ellipsis as (over) used by Céline . . . I just can't bring myself to go with the single character scrunchy version.

s4vi0r 9y ago
I cringe physically every time I see an ellipsis, they're like the calling card of the tech illiterate 30-40+ year old. I don't know why they like them so much... But they end... Every sentence or thought... Like this...
- rz2k 9y ago
  I wonder how the em-dash has avoided this. It seems to just fade into the writing and make the phrases sound like the writer wanted them to sound. Both ellipses and semicolons carry far too much baggage with them, and make a lot of people have strong feelings about the author, occasionally positive.
  - restuijs 9y ago
    I've never understood strong reactions to unusual punctuation. They serve purposes that are not well-served by anything else. Inappropriate use I can understand, but that's just like misspelling. You don't advocate for elimination of the word "loose", for example, just because it's often misused. Ellipses, for example, are useful for conveying implied but unstated thoughts. There's nothing else that functions the same way. Semicolons serve similar unique functions.
girzel 9y ago
Properly formatted (ie, in LaTeX), the real ellipsis character is the only way to go. With fixed-width fonts it's ugly, but with fixed-width fonts most of the typography is in your imagination, anyway. The hideous [dot][space][dot][space][dot][space] approach needs to die.
- weeksie 9y ago
  Ha! Tell that to Céline ;) But as someone who used to write nearly every document in LaTeX, I can tell you that I still prefer the correct version ;) (degustibus non est desputandum, eh?)
dfee 9y ago
Ah man, … as a single character is the best. I believe on a Mac it’s shift-alt-; I’m on my iPhone right now so I can’t verify my muscle memory.
- erichurkman 9y ago
  Easier: … is ⌥+; Shift+Alt+; is Ú
  - dfee 9y ago
    You're right. It's actually just alt+;
- weeksie 9y ago
  The problem being that when you have to use four marks to indicate an ellipsis leading to the end of a sentence, you get an odd triple followed by a space…. (That doesn't bother me, to be honest. I'm justifying my own quite arbitrary taste)

s4vi0r 9y ago

I cringe physically every time I see an ellipsis, they're like the calling card of the tech illiterate 30-40+ year old. I don't know why they like them so much... But they end... Every sentence or thought... Like this...

rz2k 9y ago
I wonder how the em-dash has avoided this. It seems to just fade into the writing and make the phrases sound like the writer wanted them to sound. Both ellipses and semicolons carry far too much baggage with them, and make a lot of people have strong feelings about the author, occasionally positive.
- restuijs 9y ago
  I've never understood strong reactions to unusual punctuation. They serve purposes that are not well-served by anything else. Inappropriate use I can understand, but that's just like misspelling. You don't advocate for elimination of the word "loose", for example, just because it's often misused. Ellipses, for example, are useful for conveying implied but unstated thoughts. There's nothing else that functions the same way. Semicolons serve similar unique functions.

girzel 9y ago

Properly formatted (ie, in LaTeX), the real ellipsis character is the only way to go. With fixed-width fonts it's ugly, but with fixed-width fonts most of the typography is in your imagination, anyway. The hideous [dot][space][dot][space][dot][space] approach needs to die.

weeksie 9y ago
Ha! Tell that to Céline ;) But as someone who used to write nearly every document in LaTeX, I can tell you that I still prefer the correct version ;) (degustibus non est desputandum, eh?)

dfee 9y ago

Ah man, … as a single character is the best. I believe on a Mac it’s shift-alt-; I’m on my iPhone right now so I can’t verify my muscle memory.

erichurkman 9y ago
Easier: … is ⌥+; Shift+Alt+; is Ú
- dfee 9y ago
  You're right. It's actually just alt+;
weeksie 9y ago
The problem being that when you have to use four marks to indicate an ellipsis leading to the end of a sentence, you get an odd triple followed by a space…. (That doesn't bother me, to be honest. I'm justifying my own quite arbitrary taste)