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But realistically, hyphens are used for all three, because that's the only one that can be typed with a single key.
by arrowsmith 1y ago
But realistically, hyphens are used for all three, because that's the only one that can be typed with a single key.
- AStonesThrow 1y agoUnicode and word processors ("desktop publishing") have brought us to the point of being our own typesetters. Talk about losing jobs: in the past, a document could go from a verbal dictation to a scribe taking notes, to an editor for redactions, to be set in movable type, and printed on a press. Now it’s up to one person with a computer to do it all, and our scope and definition of literacy has expanded. Someone writing a manuscript doesn’t have 3 different dashes: they just draw a line, short or long. Typewriters had a hyphen key only. Maybe we can go back to "two spaces after each period".
- mmooss 1y agoBut you can see em dashes everywhere (it's harder to distinguish en dashes). As I said above, plenty of software - very popular software such as Microsoft Word and phone keyboards - inserts em dashes automatically or when you type two hyphens. Also, throughout history I doubt everyday people thought about using em, en or hyphen. It's a detail known by professionals, like things professional chefs or coders do that amatuers don't.