[bksvol-discuss] Re: long dashes.

  • From: Misha <mlsestak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:26:44 -0800

I'm not quite sure whether I've been converted to double dashes, yet, but I'm tending to agree with your arguments. Having grown up with typewriters, not computers, I especially appreciate that point. And making bookshare books as good as possible for everyone is the goal. On the other side, there is the fact that OCR programs are getting much better at recognizing the difference between a hyphen and a long dash. Also, MS Word defaults to automatically converting -- to a single long dash. I've turned that off, but it is the default, at least in recent versions.


Misha

Mayrie ReNae wrote:
Hi Cindy,

The problem is that there aren't any em dashes in the brf files, so you can't convert them to anything. They aren't there. All braille readers see where there is supposed to be an em dash, otherwise referred to as a long dash, is a single hyphen. If you want a braille reader to see an em dash, you need to convert it to two hyphens side by side. And when reading with speech, the double hyphens present no differently than an em dash. In my opinion, everybody wins with double hyphens. And I'm sure that you remember that when we had to use type writers, the double hyphen is how we had to represent the em dash.

There is the argument that says not to deviate from the printed text. For the most part, I agree with this whole-heartedly. Not in this instance. Can you, as a sighted reader, easily distinguish between two hyphens side by side And the em dash? Would the difference lessen your understanding of the book, or your pleasure? There is a world of difference between a hyphen, which is all the braille readers see when the em dash is used, and the long dash that they see when two hyphens are used. The difference does indeed make a difference in the interpretation of the text. And I certainly don't want children to read books and think that an em dash is represented by a hyphen and try to use that in their own writing, not when I can keep the confusion from happening. Okay, I'm done soap boxing. because we are all free to choose, I respect whatever choices people make.

Peace,
Mayrie

At 01:31 PM 3/6/2008, you wrote:
Can em dashes be converted to double dashes for your
reading pleasure after you've downloaded a book? As a
validator I've been converted all double dashes and
single dashes that aren't hyphens to em dashes. Quite
a few books already have em dashes appropriately,
lately.

G. Cindy

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