I Still Type Two Spaces After A Period
Eric brings up the important topic of how many spaces to type after a period.
I learned to use a typewriter on a Royal(?) portable typewriter borrowed from the English department. It was an ancient typewriter even at that time. It must be from the 1920's. It has a typeface where the little circles of the number "6" and the number "9" line up.
It was then when I learned to
- Type two spaces after a period
- Listen to the bell. Finish the word at hand when it rings and pull the return lever
- Type two spaces before and after Latin or other foreign words and mathematical symbols
- Consult the dictionary before typing a word whose spelling I'm not certain
None of these make sense on a computer anymore. And I have given up on the bell (do you know that you can still enable the bell in vi?) and the dictionary. I put mathematical symbols in dollar signs out of respect for Donald Knuth and TEX (and all mathematicians get it).
Yet I still type two spaces after a period. I kept the habit for two reasons: i) in places where it doesn't matter the two spaces will be converted to whatever they are converted to; ii) there are still places where this conversion does not occur (notably in source files) and two spaces after a period still look better than one:
<p>Yet I still type two spaces after a period. I kept the habit for two reasons: i) in places where it doesn't matter the two spaces will be converted to whatever they are converted to; ii) there are still places where this conversion does not occur (notably in source files) and two spaces after a period still look better than one:</p>