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Sentence Spacing — 1 Space or 2?
An anonymous reader noted an epic battle is waging, the likes of which has not been seen since we all agreed that tab indenting for code was properly two spaces. He writes "Do you hit the space bar two times between sentences, or only one? I admit, I'm from the typewriter age that hits it twice, but the article has pretty much convinced me to change. My final concern: how will my word processor know the difference between an abbr. and the end of a sentence (so it can stretch the sentence for me)? I don't use a capital letter for certain technical words (even when they start a sentence), making it both harder to programmatically detect a new sentence and more important to do so. What does the Slashdot community think?"
we all agreed that tab indenting for code was properly two spaces
Say what?!?? Who made that decision? In the java world, 4 spaces is pretty standard.
"No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
Well fuck you too, then.
sic transit gloria mundi
It's easier for a human to determine sentence structure when sentences are set apart by two spaces, too.
A epic battle? Where! There is only a link to wikipedia FFS!! And even then its still more history orientated! Nor has it anything to do with programming!
This isnt news, this is bollocks!
If your word processor is using the whitespace that you enter, rather than typesetting your text according to whatever your style rules define, you need to get a new word processor. I tend to use two spaces at the end of a sentence, because I tend to edit text in monospace and it gives me a clear visual break between sentences, but that doesn't mean that I expect two spaces in the typeset output - even a web browser is more intelligent than that. Generally I find around 1.2-1.4 gives maximum readability. You want a slightly larger gap between sentences than between words, but double the width of a normal space gives too large a gap for easy reading. Of course, the width of a single space varies slightly from line to line when typesetting justified text.
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Use LaTeX (especially if you're typing technical things), then you won't have to worry about it. Type what you mean, and let the typesetter and styles handle the details.
(I should note that if have a period followed by space that isn't a new sentence or a or a period following a capital letter that is, in which case you'll need to mark up the period with \ or @ to let it know, but these are generally fringe cases.)
R.Mo
Two spaces are appropriate for typewriters and similar monospaced fonts (Courier, Monaco, Andale Mono, Consolas, Vera, Deja Vu mono)
One space for proportional fonts (Times, Helvetica, almost everything.)
That seems backwards to me. One space in a proportional font should be much smaller than one in a monospaced font. You'll get a HUGE difference between those two your way. Unless that is your intent, for some unknown reason.
Myself, I'm a two-space typer. My finger know a sentence-ending period is followed by two spaces and they just do it. However, in certain formats, such as HTML, white space is ignored anyway and then formatted by the format-processor (obviously a web browser in the case of HTML).
While I'm a two-spacer, the medium in which we type is largely making this a moot point.
-geis
This diverging discussion is the perfect example of why it is clear the ideal code indentation is a TAB. Set your editor to display whatever indentation width you like, don't expect to inflict that choice on everyone else. Plus it eliminates the possibility of sloppy partial indentations, and it's fewer keystrokes to boot. Win, win, win.
Is it readable, and is it consistent?
If so, then it's good.
Two spaces makes it easier to parse with a regexp. Any period followed by two spaces is the end of a sentence. If you use one space, you might pick up sentence fragments with titles (Mr. Mrs., etc.)
Of course, the question is really moot. LaTeX ignores whitespace and just does what it thinks is right. I am willing to trust LaTeX.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Because some of us are old and spent many years in a monospace font, and liked it.
Seriously, I've been doing two spaces after a full-stop for so long that I'd never be able to stop doing it (I've been typing since the early/mid 80's). It just becomes part of how you do things. The reality is, it may or may not render in such a way as anybody will notice it -- that doesn't mean I'm going to stop doing it.
If you were taught to use the two spaces, you're likely to always use that.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I disagree. Even with proportional fonts one space at the end of a period makes the text look crowded.
If that's true, why do you only use a single space in your comments?
"The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
I've been an editor (copy editor, proofreader, senior editor, etc.) for 10 years now. One space.
Oh yeah? I've been a typer for 25+ years now. Two spaces (but HTML will render it as one without manual spacing which has always bugged me since 1994).
You could have entered tons of spaces after that period. Depending on which comment post mode you're using, it may be using standard HTML behavior, which strips out superfluous white space, including double spaces between sentences.
If that last one provokes even a little discussion, step 6 should be "find a new job". Braceless ifs are a great way to cause mysterious bugs when somebody modifies the code down the line...
>>>I've been an editor (copy editor, proofreader, senior editor, etc.) for 10 years now. One space.
No. Two spaces separate the sentences further apart, and make it easier to read the document without accidentally running two sentences together.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I've been an editor (copy editor, proofreader, senior editor, etc.) for 10 years now. One space.
Why stop there? Really. Is even one space really needed? Doesn't a period, question mark or exclamation point denote the end of a sentence. Why go all redundant and put a space in at all . . .
Oops, I guess an ellipsis can end a sentence too.
I'm not being snarky here. But I am thinking that the answer to the question "Why not zero spaces?" would be "Because that would make it harder to read".
I am not a crackpot.
No because a typeface is (should be) designed with spaces in mind.
Yeah, the world should be a better place, but...
I've seen all too many (very popular) proportional fonts that even with two spaces, LOOK like one. And kerning seems to be a lost art these days. Ugh.
The fact that HTML decides for you is irrelevant anywhere that isn't using HTML. HTML strips out any repeated whitespace, regardless of whether or not it's at the end of a sentence. HTML also does all sorts of other nutty things with formatting that may or may not make any sense depending on what you're trying to do.
Number 4. :
Yes.
Not leaving brackets around one-liners is an invitation to mistakes.
If you want to add a debug line to the one-line block, you need to add brackets.
If you remove it, then remove the brackets.
Using them always gives you one less thing to think about.
Read above, re HTML collapsing multiple spaces into one. He'd have to type one of the two as .
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
Probably because html strips out the second space, and slashcode won't recognize  .
Is 1563649 a prime number?
Or a newline.
I've been an editor (copy editor, proofreader, senior editor, etc.) for 10 years now.
That is not an argument. Or rather, it is an exceedingly poor argument. Much like, my penis is larger than yours, therefor I am correct.
Try using reason next time.
For example: two spaces are easier to visually parse than one. That's testable, verifiable, and reproducible.
Parsing failure: Invalid nesting at line 11. No end tag for element "word" before end of element "sentence".
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
no way! the only correct way is of course
If (foo=true) {
a=x;
}
*g*
But we all write all the time, if not intended for publication.
Should 1% or less of all writing dictate what should happen to the other 99%+ of writing?
One of the many deficiencies of HTML.
Perhaps. I'm in the habit of putting an after periods when I write for HTML. Problem would be solved, if it wasn't for comment editing code that strips them out (such as here on Slashdot which you can see here since I put 4 nbsp's separated by spaces after the periods in this paragraph, and despite the fact they are preserved through the preview, they are having no visible effect). The deficiency is not strictly with HTML, but with some of the editors that work with it.
Though I agree that HTML does not make it easy to maintain double spaced sentence separation. I hate reading single-spaced sentence text, I always notice it and it looks ugly. Perhaps I should insert
after every sentence, and while that would look ugly too, at least it would show my displeasure with the sentence police who have apparently decided that we will not use two spaces...