atw: Re: One or two spaces: CMOS takes on the U.S. Marines

Christine Kent wrote:


Can anyone give me a good logical or aesthetic reason for one space rather
than two, other than "one space is the standard"?  I will comply if there is
a good reason.  Strange thing about standards, though, is that some human
being sets them, and in this case, probably an editor with no sense of
aesthetics.

I wonder if that person knows how globally powerful their stroke of the pen
has been?  Anyone know the history?



Yes. The "two spaces after a period" rule originated for
monospace-producing typewriters, where the space between
words was the same width as the space after a sentence-
ending period. However, the reason the rule has been
modified is that for proportional spaced fonts, a sentence-
ending space is distinguishable from the space between
words; thus, two spaces after a period is not necessary.

On a more practical note, most HTML and word processors
will strip a second space anyway :->

-- Janice

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Janice Gelb          | The only connection Sun has with
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