4 ms·

I'm not sure why people let others change them. I keep punctuating like it's the 20th Century.

gljiva 1y ago
People whose ideas get heavily criticized for "being written by AI" (with most readers missing the point) have less influence and perhaps that influence matters enough to them to adapt, i.e. to "let others change them"
wpollock 1y ago
> I'm not sure why people let others change them. I keep punctuating like it's the 20th Century. In the 20th century, there were two spaces after an end of sentence period. (I still do that.)
- greesil 1y ago
  I've been called out on this by coworkers in code review. It's mildly infuriating.
  - positron26 1y ago
    These are the moments that I need to have a confrontation about not bringing up unimportant things. The person who wrote the comment intended to communicate things about the code. The person who brought up the punctuation could change if if they really wanted to, if it was actually productive work. It's about "catching" someone else and having a reason to nip them on the ear. Review like that is what belongs in the garbage.
- Dwedit 1y ago
  Very annoying how HTML changes your two spaces into one space.
  - Wistar 1y ago
    I use “ ” if I really need a blank space.
  - kbrkbr 1y ago
    Try   [1] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-breaking_space https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-breaking_space (see specifically the example section)
- throw0101c 1y ago
  > In the 20th century, there were two spaces after an end of sentence period. (I still do that.) Only if you used a typewriter. I was using (La)TeX in the twentieth (1990s), and it defaulted to a rough equivalent of 1.5 spaces (see \spacefactor). Two ('full') space characters were added because of (tele)typewriters and their fixed width fonts, and this was generally not used in 'properly' published works with proportional typefaces; see CMoS: * https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/OneSpaceorTwo.html https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/O... Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style (§2.1.4) concurs: * https://readings.design/PDF/the_elements_of_typographic_style.pdf https://readings.design/PDF/the_elements_of_typographic_styl... * https://webtypography.net/2.1.4 https://webtypography.net/2.1.4 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Typographic_Style https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Typographic_St...
  - wpollock 1y ago
    Good to know! I am reminded of using *roff in the 1980s. Punctuation such as periods at the end of lines marked end of sentences, and nroff would insert two spaces in that case. In HN, you can force two spaces between sentences. But only in code blocks.
    - zvr 1y ago
      vim still does it, when joining lines.
  - layer8 1y ago
    > Two ('full') space characters were added because of (tele)typewriters and their fixed width fonts I could never agree with this, because monospace fonts are already adding extra space with the dot character, which is much narrower in proportional fonts. That fact alone makes the visual gap already similarly wide as it would be in typeset proportional text. Adding a second space makes it much too wide visually (almost three positions wide). It looks like badly typeset justified text. (I understand why people are doing it, I just don’t agree on aesthetic grounds.)
  - mwcz 1y ago
- bigstrat2003 1y ago
  When I was growing up (90s), we were taught that either one or two spaces was acceptable practice.
  - tjohns 1y ago
    I was thought two spaces was for fixed width (typewriters), whereas one space was for word processors with proportional typesetting.
- leviathant 1y ago
  I eventually gave up on this, but I always favored it because a period with two spaces after it very clearly designated the end of a sentence, as opposed to something like an abbreviation. It made parsing English just a little bit easier.
  - NoGravitas 1y ago
    Indeed, Emacs has historically used the double space at the end of a sentence to provide movement and cut functions operating on sentences.
- ffin 1y ago
  I think Google Docs does this automatically.
imperialdrive 1y ago
Exactly my thought upon seeing this :)
bigstrat2003 1y ago
I agree. Reminds me of a few years back, when I got a Red Hat baseball cap which is (obviously) red. I had people telling me "oh no you can't wear that, MAGA hats ruined that". To which I say, balderdash and poppycock. I refuse to let others' mistaken assumptions dictate my behavior. If someone sees me wearing a RHEL hat and hates me because they assume I'm a Trump supporter, that's their problem, not mine.
- necovek 1y ago
  Would you wear an original swastika[1] on your baseball hat? [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika Which is to say, we all compromise. I'd hate to lose my em- and en-dashes, but the original post seems to misuse en-dashes where hyphens belong (it could just be a font issue, but no matter).
gxonatano 1y ago
> I keep punctuating like it's the 20th Century. I keep punctuating like it's the 18th Century, myself;—compound points are my favorites:—like the colon-dash compound, AKA the "dog's bollocks."

People whose ideas get heavily criticized for "being written by AI" (with most readers missing the point) have less influence and perhaps that influence matters enough to them to adapt, i.e. to "let others change them"

wpollock 1y ago

> I'm not sure why people let others change them. I keep punctuating like it's the 20th Century. In the 20th century, there were two spaces after an end of sentence period. (I still do that.)

greesil 1y ago
I've been called out on this by coworkers in code review. It's mildly infuriating.
- positron26 1y ago
  These are the moments that I need to have a confrontation about not bringing up unimportant things. The person who wrote the comment intended to communicate things about the code. The person who brought up the punctuation could change if if they really wanted to, if it was actually productive work. It's about "catching" someone else and having a reason to nip them on the ear. Review like that is what belongs in the garbage.
Dwedit 1y ago
Very annoying how HTML changes your two spaces into one space.
- Wistar 1y ago
  I use “ ” if I really need a blank space.
- kbrkbr 1y ago
  Try   [1] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-breaking_space https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-breaking_space (see specifically the example section)
throw0101c 1y ago
> In the 20th century, there were two spaces after an end of sentence period. (I still do that.) Only if you used a typewriter. I was using (La)TeX in the twentieth (1990s), and it defaulted to a rough equivalent of 1.5 spaces (see \spacefactor). Two ('full') space characters were added because of (tele)typewriters and their fixed width fonts, and this was generally not used in 'properly' published works with proportional typefaces; see CMoS: * https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/OneSpaceorTwo.html https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/O... Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style (§2.1.4) concurs: * https://readings.design/PDF/the_elements_of_typographic_style.pdf https://readings.design/PDF/the_elements_of_typographic_styl... * https://webtypography.net/2.1.4 https://webtypography.net/2.1.4 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Typographic_Style https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Typographic_St...
- wpollock 1y ago
  Good to know! I am reminded of using *roff in the 1980s. Punctuation such as periods at the end of lines marked end of sentences, and nroff would insert two spaces in that case. In HN, you can force two spaces between sentences. But only in code blocks.
  - zvr 1y ago
    vim still does it, when joining lines.
- layer8 1y ago
  > Two ('full') space characters were added because of (tele)typewriters and their fixed width fonts I could never agree with this, because monospace fonts are already adding extra space with the dot character, which is much narrower in proportional fonts. That fact alone makes the visual gap already similarly wide as it would be in typeset proportional text. Adding a second space makes it much too wide visually (almost three positions wide). It looks like badly typeset justified text. (I understand why people are doing it, I just don’t agree on aesthetic grounds.)
- mwcz 1y ago
bigstrat2003 1y ago
When I was growing up (90s), we were taught that either one or two spaces was acceptable practice.
- tjohns 1y ago
  I was thought two spaces was for fixed width (typewriters), whereas one space was for word processors with proportional typesetting.
leviathant 1y ago
I eventually gave up on this, but I always favored it because a period with two spaces after it very clearly designated the end of a sentence, as opposed to something like an abbreviation. It made parsing English just a little bit easier.
- NoGravitas 1y ago
  Indeed, Emacs has historically used the double space at the end of a sentence to provide movement and cut functions operating on sentences.
ffin 1y ago
I think Google Docs does this automatically.

imperialdrive 1y ago

Exactly my thought upon seeing this :)

bigstrat2003 1y ago

I agree. Reminds me of a few years back, when I got a Red Hat baseball cap which is (obviously) red. I had people telling me "oh no you can't wear that, MAGA hats ruined that". To which I say, balderdash and poppycock. I refuse to let others' mistaken assumptions dictate my behavior. If someone sees me wearing a RHEL hat and hates me because they assume I'm a Trump supporter, that's their problem, not mine.

necovek 1y ago
Would you wear an original swastika[1] on your baseball hat? [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika Which is to say, we all compromise. I'd hate to lose my em- and en-dashes, but the original post seems to misuse en-dashes where hyphens belong (it could just be a font issue, but no matter).

gxonatano 1y ago

> I keep punctuating like it's the 20th Century. I keep punctuating like it's the 18th Century, myself;—compound points are my favorites:—like the colon-dash compound, AKA the "dog's bollocks."