4 ms·

Hyphen. You'll also hear it called "hyphen-minus"

teddyh 4y ago
"Hyphen‐minus" is an ASCII abomination, and should only be used in ASCII‐constrained environments. Hyphen is hyphen and minus is minus: ‐ 002010;HYPHEN;Pd;0;ON;;;;;N;;;;; − 002212;MINUS SIGN;Sm;0;ES;;;;;N;;;;;
- Aardwolf 4y ago
  The issue of non-ASCII-constrained environments is that it's still not easily accessible on most keyboards. I do know and use the compose key but it's not the same as having a standard key for it. Trying on a mobile device, long pressing the dash key there suggests 2 dashes (not sure if the second choice is en-dash or em-dash), which is some but that's not the 4 types discussed here.
  - teddyh 4y ago
    If a character is too difficult to type on some specific system, that is indeed a constrained environment.
    - Aardwolf 4y ago
      Do you know one where it's easy to type? There are many international keyboards but I don't think any has that many dashes. Compose key is the best I think.
      - teddyh 4y ago
        Reportedly, a “German standard keyboard according to DIN 2137-1:2012-06” has them: https://unicode.org/wg2/docs/n4984-Unicode-Proposal-9995-V7.pdf https://unicode.org/wg2/docs/n4984-Unicode-Proposal-9995-V7....
- kzrdude 4y ago
  I was wondering what's better. The document is clearer if we use unicode. But maybe for humans it's easier if we have a limited character set and use context instead. Like this. In plain text, - is a hyphen: twenty-five, -1 In math context - is a minus sign $ (-1)^3 + x^3 $ Where it will be ensured to be rendered as appropriate
  - teddyh 4y ago
    It’s easier to type HYPHEN-MINUS‐the‐keyboard-key, but text should be displayed using the appropriate glyph, depending on its semantic meaning, which is never HYPHEN-MINUS‐the-glyph. (This discussion is similar to the classic net discussion about TAB‐the‐ASCII‐character versus TAB‐the‐keyboard‐key, with some people having trouble conceptualizing the difference.)

"Hyphen‐minus" is an ASCII abomination, and should only be used in ASCII‐constrained environments. Hyphen is hyphen and minus is minus: ‐ 002010;HYPHEN;Pd;0;ON;;;;;N;;;;; − 002212;MINUS SIGN;Sm;0;ES;;;;;N;;;;;

Aardwolf 4y ago
The issue of non-ASCII-constrained environments is that it's still not easily accessible on most keyboards. I do know and use the compose key but it's not the same as having a standard key for it. Trying on a mobile device, long pressing the dash key there suggests 2 dashes (not sure if the second choice is en-dash or em-dash), which is some but that's not the 4 types discussed here.
- teddyh 4y ago
  If a character is too difficult to type on some specific system, that is indeed a constrained environment.
  - Aardwolf 4y ago
    Do you know one where it's easy to type? There are many international keyboards but I don't think any has that many dashes. Compose key is the best I think.
    - teddyh 4y ago
      Reportedly, a “German standard keyboard according to DIN 2137-1:2012-06” has them: https://unicode.org/wg2/docs/n4984-Unicode-Proposal-9995-V7.pdf https://unicode.org/wg2/docs/n4984-Unicode-Proposal-9995-V7....
kzrdude 4y ago
I was wondering what's better. The document is clearer if we use unicode. But maybe for humans it's easier if we have a limited character set and use context instead. Like this. In plain text, - is a hyphen: twenty-five, -1 In math context - is a minus sign $ (-1)^3 + x^3 $ Where it will be ensured to be rendered as appropriate
- teddyh 4y ago
  It’s easier to type HYPHEN-MINUS‐the‐keyboard-key, but text should be displayed using the appropriate glyph, depending on its semantic meaning, which is never HYPHEN-MINUS‐the-glyph. (This discussion is similar to the classic net discussion about TAB‐the‐ASCII‐character versus TAB‐the‐keyboard‐key, with some people having trouble conceptualizing the difference.)