4 ms·

Easy is almost an understatement; it's Alt+Hyphen. [Edit: My bad that's en-dash, can't tell the difference in this monospaced text field. Em-dash you have to ho

Easy is almost an understatement; it's Alt+Hyphen. [Edit: My bad that's en-dash, can't tell the difference in this monospaced text field. Em-dash you have to hold shift.] I guess on Windows it's Alt+0,1,5,1 on a numpad. Or you copy+paste from Character Map.

e28eta 1y ago
To be pedantic: Opt-shift-hyphen for the em dash (longer one). Opt-hyphen only gets you an en dash.
- 9dev 1y ago
  …which is the appropriate character for ranges, i.e., page 1–2. I find it a bit sad that using proper typography is now frowned upon, but it seems that ship has sailed.
  - Symbiote 1y ago
    From the discussion with our head of communications (whose pedantry I approve of) US usage avoids spaces—like this—and should use an em-dash. But British usage – instead – uses spaces, so an en-dash or an em-dash is acceptable.
    - d1sxeyes 1y ago
      Generally spaces around em-dashes is a question of style, not pre- or pro-scribed by any specific typographical rule. One nice middle ground is a hair space (&hairsp;), although it’s a pain to insert.
      - 1659447091 1y ago
        > spaces around em-dashes is a question of style, not pre- or pro-scribed by any specific typographical rule Writing and publishing style guides like Hart's Rules (Oxford Style Guide) & Chicago manual of style have the 'em' dash use as a parenthetical closed or "no spaces" dash. In British use – Hart's Rules – writers will choose the 'en' dash with spaces as a parenthetical dash, where US writers/publishers choose the closed 'em' dash for the same thing. Imo, there is a conflation of 'en' dash and 'em' dash going around due to the ease of smart-dashes auto-correction turning (--) into 'em' dash with the 'en' dash and non-auto-correct 'em' dash needing a key-combo. Common everyday typing online, I think people will simply use what is convenient and "good enough" -- a single hyphen dash as an 'en' dash or 2-hyphen dashes that may or may not auto correct into an 'em' dash. I prefer mixing spaces with a 2-hyphen dash 'em' dash, but I'm not a published writer so I enjoy doing wild things like that
      - andrewaylett 1y ago
        I configured my Markdown renderer to replace ` -- ` with " — ". Hopefully those narrow spaces make it through HN's rendering — it's much easier when your tooling can do the job for you. https://github.com/andrewaylett/aylett.co.uk/blob/d338d35a3d9329f7fa9d68a9b6fc4618df4fd56a/src/remark/process_markdown.ts#L64 https://github.com/andrewaylett/aylett.co.uk/blob/d338d35a3d...
- machinate 1y ago
  Right, you sniped my edit. I don't know why I gave up my hn delay setting...
- saagarjha 1y ago
  One of the reasons I'm not on that page–I have a policy of using en dashes because I am lazy
notpushkin 1y ago
You can install a custom layout on Windows, like the one I made: https://typo.ale.sh/ https://typo.ale.sh/
SAI_Peregrinus 1y ago
Or you've had WinCompose installed for years and type Compose+hyphen+hyphen+hyphen. — is easy to type that way. The same works for Linux with a compose key enabled, WinCompose is a program to give Windows a compose key, and comes with default sequences including those found by default in most distro's XCompose list.
- etra0 1y ago
  Big shout-out to WinCompose, it's the only way I found my keyboard usable while being bilingual :)

e28eta 1y ago

To be pedantic: Opt-shift-hyphen for the em dash (longer one). Opt-hyphen only gets you an en dash.

9dev 1y ago
…which is the appropriate character for ranges, i.e., page 1–2. I find it a bit sad that using proper typography is now frowned upon, but it seems that ship has sailed.
- Symbiote 1y ago
  From the discussion with our head of communications (whose pedantry I approve of) US usage avoids spaces—like this—and should use an em-dash. But British usage – instead – uses spaces, so an en-dash or an em-dash is acceptable.
  - d1sxeyes 1y ago
    Generally spaces around em-dashes is a question of style, not pre- or pro-scribed by any specific typographical rule. One nice middle ground is a hair space (&hairsp;), although it’s a pain to insert.
    - 1659447091 1y ago
      > spaces around em-dashes is a question of style, not pre- or pro-scribed by any specific typographical rule Writing and publishing style guides like Hart's Rules (Oxford Style Guide) & Chicago manual of style have the 'em' dash use as a parenthetical closed or "no spaces" dash. In British use – Hart's Rules – writers will choose the 'en' dash with spaces as a parenthetical dash, where US writers/publishers choose the closed 'em' dash for the same thing. Imo, there is a conflation of 'en' dash and 'em' dash going around due to the ease of smart-dashes auto-correction turning (--) into 'em' dash with the 'en' dash and non-auto-correct 'em' dash needing a key-combo. Common everyday typing online, I think people will simply use what is convenient and "good enough" -- a single hyphen dash as an 'en' dash or 2-hyphen dashes that may or may not auto correct into an 'em' dash. I prefer mixing spaces with a 2-hyphen dash 'em' dash, but I'm not a published writer so I enjoy doing wild things like that
    - andrewaylett 1y ago
      I configured my Markdown renderer to replace ` -- ` with " — ". Hopefully those narrow spaces make it through HN's rendering — it's much easier when your tooling can do the job for you. https://github.com/andrewaylett/aylett.co.uk/blob/d338d35a3d9329f7fa9d68a9b6fc4618df4fd56a/src/remark/process_markdown.ts#L64 https://github.com/andrewaylett/aylett.co.uk/blob/d338d35a3d...
machinate 1y ago
Right, you sniped my edit. I don't know why I gave up my hn delay setting...
saagarjha 1y ago
One of the reasons I'm not on that page–I have a policy of using en dashes because I am lazy

notpushkin 1y ago

You can install a custom layout on Windows, like the one I made: https://typo.ale.sh/ https://typo.ale.sh/

SAI_Peregrinus 1y ago

Or you've had WinCompose installed for years and type Compose+hyphen+hyphen+hyphen. — is easy to type that way. The same works for Linux with a compose key enabled, WinCompose is a program to give Windows a compose key, and comes with default sequences including those found by default in most distro's XCompose list.

etra0 1y ago
Big shout-out to WinCompose, it's the only way I found my keyboard usable while being bilingual :)