Re: How many spaces after a period?

[Gary V. Vaughan]

Hi Karl,

Thanks for the swift response.

On 13 Sep 2010, at 05:01, Karl Berry wrote:

> Baffled on several fronts ...
> 
>    declaring address@hidden on' conversely indicates the use of a
>    single space at the end of a sentence - the exact opposite of how
>    the term is normally used:
> 
> No, it is not the opposite, it is the normal meaning.

You're right, @frenchspacing as implemented is quite correct; I must
have been low on caffeine when I thought otherwise.  Sorry for the
noise.

> Also, frenchspacing is definitely not the usual typographic convention
> in English-language typesetting, so I don't think GNU manuals written in
> English should use it.  Normal spacing in English is @frenchspacing off
> (the default).
> 
> Two space chars vs. one after periods in input files and typewriter-ish
> contexts like Info is not exactly the same question as frenchspacing or
> not.

Not that I'm especially opposed to double spacing, – I'd just like to
not have to be religious about requiring it unless single spaces cause
an actual problem – but if @frenchspacing is orthogonal to the use of
single spaces after a period in texinfo documents, will texinfo render
badly spaced dvi (or other) if we use single spaces after a period, or
even if we are inconsistent throughout an input document?

For example, HTML really doesn't care, and renders output consistently
no matter what spacing is used in the raw html document, and I'd be
happy to learn that texinfo is the same.

>    Is there some other mandate that explains why we should go against
>    modern typographical conventions and insist on double spaces?
> 
> I always thought it was (fundamentally) about Emacs as well.  That's
> what rms told me in 1985, anyway :).  At any rate, the convention ever
> since GNU started was to have two spaces at the end of sentences.  I
> never liked two spaces in my input files either, but I don't see any
> percentage in changing it now.

Well, I'm almost entirely ambivalent.  But I'd certainly like to
avoid having to count spaces during patch reviews.  If double spaces
turn out to be required in texinfo, then I'll write a maintainer
make rule to check for violations - but, if single spaces are okay
too, then we can all relax and type whatever our muscle memory prefers.

> There are plenty of other GCS "rules"/conventions which not every
> package follows, so if you can't bring yourself to type the extra space,
> the world won't come to an end.

Phew! ;-)

Cheers,
-- 
Gary V. Vaughan (address@hidden)

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