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people don't normally put spaces around em dash For what it's worth, I was in the last class in my high school to learn typing on IBM Selectric typewriters. W
by snozolli 2y ago
people don't normally put spaces around em dash
For what it's worth, I was in the last class in my high school to learn typing on IBM Selectric typewriters. We were taught to type two spaces, two hyphens, then two spaces. Incidentally, we were taught two spaces after periods and colons. To this day, I find it hard to read text that doesn't have proper spacing after periods. (HTML and WYSIWYG word processors handle formatting, but e.g. fixed-font text editors don't)
- kevin_thibedeau 2y agoI was taught that and abandoned it as a pointless anachronism. How often are you reading long form text in a monospace font?
- snozolli 2y agoOften enough, thanks.
- dragonwriter 2y agoIts funny that people think that conventions for typewritten text built around the limitations of typewriters define what is “proper” in environments where typewriters and their limitations are not involved.
- ovalanche 2y agoYes, this always grinds my gears too. There is already a slightly larger space after periods in contemporary typefaces. The old typewriter typefaces were monospaced, ie. every character was the same width, but this is no longer the case. Virtually all typefaces today are proportionally spaced, not monospaced. So it’s redundant to leave extra room after periods.
- snozolli 2y agoWhat does this have to do with what I wrote? I said nothing of the sort. In fact, I explicitly pointed out that HTML and WYSIWYG word processors address it automatically.
- ovalanche 2y agoThat’s fair! My comment applies to a few pedantics I know personally, who stubbornly double space after periods when typing in regular situations.