apotheon

32 ms·

241.
by apotheon 16y ago
I see monospace typefaces in email all the time. The fact you like your emails extra-infected does not mean I share your enthusiasm for HTML mucking up my monospace formatting when someone sends an email with source code in it. Read and le
242.
by apotheon 16y ago
It's cheaper to print a 310 page book than a 360 page book. That's why.
243.
by apotheon 16y ago
You should write the Slate writer a note thanking him for the inspiration to do so.
244.
by apotheon 16y ago
Yeah -- there's one emacs holdout that will hang that jury. Thanks to him, we'll all have to write code in MS word.
245.
by apotheon 16y ago
. . . or a programmer, accustomed to using monospace fonts, who has learned to touch-type and hits the space bar twice as a matter of habit. When I see one space, I tend to suspect the writer is not a (very good, anyway) programmer, and is
246.
by apotheon 16y ago
> There is a good reason to use two spaces, and that is that when you're typing, you're only creating text, not typesetting. Software does the typesetting now, and will automatically space out sentences in a way that looks right. Furt
247.
by apotheon 16y ago
CMoS and MLA are not identical.
248.
by apotheon 16y ago
I have bad news for you: I'm a professional writer. I just happen to be much better at it than that hack, even though he probably gets paid more. Of course, the reason he (probably) gets paid more is that he writes for Slate, while I write
249.
by apotheon 16y ago
I think that, outside of journalism, very few people were "taught" single spacing. I suspect that mostly, non-journalists who use single spacing between sentences are people who learned by reading tweets, SMS messages, and Facebook pages.
250.
by apotheon 16y ago
That's an edge-case of the way that person's software preserves multiple spaces by force in browsers; it replaces the second of two spaces between sentences in the source with a similar, non-breaking space. Use the `diff` command (if you'r
251.
by apotheon 16y ago
There are quotes from two typographers (less than "several" by my estimation), and they don't even give meaningful support for their positions. They just claim to be right.
252.
by apotheon 16y ago
No -- he gives the reasons he agrees with those authorities. That's not the same as those authorities' reasons.
253.
by apotheon 16y ago
. . . except in code.
254.
by apotheon 16y ago
Try these reasons for two-space sentence separation (and against the Slate single-space argument): http://blogstrapping.com/?page=2011.014.10.05.57
255.
by apotheon 16y ago
There's something kooky going on with that page. I think the CMS used for that site must be substituting one type of space character with another in Unicode, or something like that, so that the browser does not "know" how to collapse the t
256.
by apotheon 16y ago
That's not a good reason to use two spaces -- that's a good reason for people who think one space is "the standard" to stop haranguing people who use more than one character width to separate sentences when typing.
257.
by apotheon 16y ago
If you liked that -- I wonder if you would also like the longer version: http://blogstrapping.com/?page=2011.014.10.05.57
258.
by apotheon 16y ago
> Actually, the modern convention of a single space is not due to saving space.† A proportional computer font is kerned in such a way that the space after a period is wider then between words. That's not "the modern convention of a sing
259.
by apotheon 16y ago
The CMoS is hardly a final authority on the matter. It is just one common style, and is optimized for a particular presentation and publication style. It is also used by teachers to get students to write more words when their requirement
260.
by apotheon 16y ago
It's not tough to write 2000 words or so on the subject. It's just difficult to write 2000 words or so on the subject and still end up with so little substance .
261.
by apotheon 16y ago
Saying it doesn't make it so -- and I'd expect someone at HN to know that.
262.
by apotheon 16y ago
> What the articles fails to clearly mention . . . is a whole lot of stuff: http://blogstrapping.com/?page=2011.014.10.05.57
263.
by apotheon 16y ago
Slate Invaders: Why You Should Use Two Spaces Between Sentences http://blogstrapping.com/?page=2011.014.10.05.57 HN submission: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2104266
264.
by apotheon 16y ago
If you had just said "tl;dr", you might not have sounded as much like a willful ignoramus to those who might actually read it.
265.
by apotheon 16y ago
. . . because the other side deserves to be heard.
266.
Slate Invaders: Why You Should Use Two Spaces Between Sentences(blogstrapping.com)
3 points by apotheon 16y ago|8 comments
267.
by apotheon 16y ago
What -- quotes straddling punctuation? I don't know if it's "an American thing" but, as a resident of the USA, I find it "a stupid thing". Note my period outside the quotes. Periods go inside quotes, in my world at least, when the quoted t
268.
by apotheon 16y ago
What is "Shaky Spire"? edit: Oh, Shakespeare. Sorry, I should have gotten that.
269.
by apotheon 16y ago
Basically, any field that requires any rigor tends to deal a lot in monospace fonts. Writing for Slate is not one of those fields.
270.
by apotheon 16y ago
I'm inclined to think you're right -- except that two spaces between sentences should still be the norm when typing, until AI sufficient to correctly guess what kind of period you are using is invented, so that the software has the cues nec

More ›