When the Grammar Nazi's strike!

[B.J.]

HTML collapses all spaces down to one, not just the two at the end of sentences. It's just an artifact of the way it was programmed.

 

[cultcross]

I think what's causing the 2-space rule to go out the window isn't anything to do with typography -- it's to do with HTML, and how the Internet was set up. For instance, every post I type has 2 spaces between each sentence, but when I go to post it, the computer deletes all the second spaces. Whoever set up the protocols for how text appears on the Internet enforced a new rule on everyone (which I find very disagreeable, for said person to force their opinion in that way).

You’re putting the cart before the horse. HTML deletes extra spaces because they don’t exist, and never existed, in printed matter going back to the days of Gutenberg. The need to double-space after a period was purely an artifact of the typewriter age. Today’s word processing looks and feels like traditional typesetting; the only resemblance to a typewriter is the retention of the QWERTY keyboard layout. And any old-time Linotype operator will tell you to hit the spacebar once at the end of a sentence.

Exactly, I don't understand the desire to still correct for something that no longer needs correcting. It's not as though English throughout history has double spaced and we're just lazy in our age of recliner chairs and spray can cheese. Double spacing was just a way of working with a now obsolete technology. It would be like arguing future generations should name things with '.doc' at the end.

 

[B.J.]

Meh. In the days of hand-set typography, there were many different sizes of spaces, like an em space or an en space. We only have the one spacebar, though.

 

[scotpens]

Meh. In the days of hand-set typography, there were many different sizes of spaces, like an em space or an en space. We only have the one spacebar, though.

The now-obsolescent Linotype machine has fixed-width spaces like en and em spaces. But in setting text, normally only the regular spaceband key is used. When type is justified (set so that both left and right margins are flush), spacing is adjusted automatically so that each line is spaced evenly.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

So you're using one obsolete thing to argue against another thing you're calling obsolete? Sorry if I don't find that holds much water.

 

[scotpens]

So you're using one obsolete thing to argue against another thing you're calling obsolete? Sorry if I don't find that holds much water.

I was simply using Linotype as an example of mechanized typesetting. Today's digital typesetting works the same way -- only with computers and stuff.

The point is, it's NOT A FRIGGIN' TYPEWRITER.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I think what's causing the 2-space rule to go out the window isn't anything to do with typography -- it's to do with HTML, and how the Internet was set up. For instance, every post I type has 2 spaces between each sentence, but when I go to post it, the computer deletes all the second spaces. Whoever set up the protocols for how text appears on the Internet enforced a new rule on everyone (which I find very disagreeable, for said person to force their opinion in that way).

You’re putting the cart before the horse. HTML deletes extra spaces because they don’t exist, and never existed, in printed matter going back to the days of Gutenberg. The need to double-space after a period was purely an artifact of the typewriter age. Today’s word processing looks and feels like traditional typesetting; the only resemblance to a typewriter is the retention of the QWERTY keyboard layout. And any old-time Linotype operator will tell you to hit the spacebar once at the end of a sentence.

Exactly, I don't understand the desire to still correct for something that no longer needs correcting. It's not as though English throughout history has double spaced and we're just lazy in our age of recliner chairs and spray can cheese. Double spacing was just a way of working with a now obsolete technology. It would be like arguing future generations should name things with '.doc' at the end.

It's because it isn't a big deal either way. I do it out of habit, not out of a desire to correct for a typewriter. It's so trivial it isn't normally noticed either way. You'd have to be going out of your way to notice it in order to be upset by it. And that makes no sense to me.

 

[scotpens]

. . . It's so trivial it isn't normally noticed either way. You'd have to be going out of your way to notice it in order to be upset by it.

I notice it. Busman's holiday and all that.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I have no idea what the reference is. But seriously, you notice and it really irritates you? I view it as slightly below where you put the punctuation next to a quotation mark on the level of grammatical mistakes.

 

[bluedana]

It's because it isn't a big deal either way. I do it out of habit, not out of a desire to correct for a typewriter. It's so trivial it isn't normally noticed either way. You'd have to be going out of your way to notice it in order to be upset by it. And that makes no sense to me.

I have no idea what the reference is. But seriously, you notice and it really irritates you? I view it as slightly below where you put the punctuation next to a quotation mark on the level of grammatical mistakes.

Hi, Alidar Jarok. Please save room on your dance card for me. Sincerely, blue.

 

[KJbushway]

Thats cool, but some people go out of there way to correct someone when they are in a debt. Those poeple irritate me, I have no problem with someone who just on a side note says hey you misspelled this or you didn't put that there.

 

[RJDiogenes]

"Out of their way" to correct someone. And I think you're trying to say "in doubt," but I'm not sure.

 

[RoJoHen]

"Out of their way" to correct someone. And I think you're trying to say "in doubt," but I'm not sure.

Also, that comma after "irritate me" is wrong. It should be a period or a semicolon.

 

[KJbushway]

god, I am doing some naughty hand gestures right now.

 

[Skellington]

That's "God", not "god". Of course, if you had immediately preceded it with the word "My" then you could have used either. Polytheists are people too.

 

[KJbushway]

Yeah sorry since its not phyiscally in existence(in my opinion) it doesn't deserve the whole Upper case G. Sorry nouns.

 

[auntiehill]

Yeah, sorry. Since it's not physically in existence (in my opinion), it doesn't deserve the uppercase G. Sorry, nouns.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Don't you wish we had colored text? Or strikeout?

"Out of their way" to correct someone. And I think you're trying to say "in doubt," but I'm not sure.

Also, that comma after "irritate me" is wrong. It should be a period or a semicolon.

True.

And there should be a double space between the period and emoticon.

 

[auntiehill]

^^ Don't you wish we had colored text? Or strikeout?

Yes.

Also, that comma after "irritate me" is wrong. It should be a period or a semicolon.
True.

And there should be a double space between the period and emoticon.

^

 

[RoJoHen]

Yeah sorry since its not phyiscally in existence(in my opinion) it doesn't deserve the whole Upper case G. Sorry nouns.

It at least deserves a capital G because it's the beginning of a sentence.