[vwnc] Usage of Double Spaced Sentences

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On
> Behalf Of Runar Jordahl
> Sent: 12 November 2008 12:22
> To: VW NC
> Subject: [vwnc] Usage of Double Spaced Sentences
>
> Looking through VisualWorks 7.6, you can find usage of both double
> spaced sentences (French spacing) and single spaced sentences. Refer
> to Collection>>myDependents and CompiledMethod Collection>>collect:
> for examples.
>
> I suggest that the VisualWorks team standardize on single spaced
> sentences and stick to that.
>
> I wanted to run unit tests on code to verify our own usage of spacing.
> Cincom's auto-generated window spec comment (which uses double spaced
> sentences) made me aware of their inconsistent use.
>
> More on the issue at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_spacing
>
> Runar Jordahl
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>Runar,
>
>I do not mean to diminish your request, or even go against it.  You
>bring up an interesting topic though, and I thought I'd add a bit more
>background.
>
>For the sake of clarity, using double spaces between sentences is more
>consistent with American spacing rather than French spacing.  In fact,
>the Wikipedia page states that double spacing was termed "French" in the
>90s in the US, even though French spacing itself uses single spacing
>between sentences (and adds spaces for :, !, and others).  It is
>American spacing that uses double spacing for sentences (and single
>spaces for :, !, and others).  I think Knuth got it right with TeX.
>>From the Wikipedia page,
>
>TeX
>
>The typesetting software TeX also treats input runs of whitespace as a
>single space, but uses a heuristic to recognize sentence endings and
>typesets these by default with double-spaces.  Contrary to the
>relatively recent Americanism [calling double spacing as "French"],
>Knuth uses the terms English spacing and American typewriter spacing to
>describe this: he named the TeX macro to disable the automatic enlarging
>of space after the end of a sentence \frenchspacing, whereas
>double-spacing is the default (or can be explicitly enabled with
>\nonfrenchspacing).
>
>
>At some point in the past, I also learned that legal documents are
>written with two spaces between sentences to ensure that a period cannot
>be confused for a comma (or the other way around) when the punctuation
>itself has a spelling error.  This is some sort of ECC for documents.
>For example, consider
>
>"blah blah.  Blah blah"
>
>as opposed to
>
>"blah blah,  Blah blah"
>
>Clearly a period is meant here, even if a comma is used, because there
>are two spaces between "blah," and "Blah".
>
>Andres.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On
>Behalf Of Runar Jordahl
>Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 2:22 AM
>To: VW NC
>Subject: [vwnc] Usage of Double Spaced Sentences
>
>Looking through VisualWorks 7.6, you can find usage of both double
>spaced sentences (French spacing) and single spaced sentences. Refer to
>Collection>>myDependents and CompiledMethod Collection>>collect:
>for examples.
>
>I suggest that the VisualWorks team standardize on single spaced
>sentences and stick to that.
>
>I wanted to run unit tests on code to verify our own usage of spacing.
>Cincom's auto-generated window spec comment (which uses double spaced
>sentences) made me aware of their inconsistent use.
>
>More on the issue at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_spacing
>
>Runar Jordahl
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>vwnc mailing list
>[hidden email]
>http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwnc
>
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>
>
>  
>

> Dear Runar.,
>    minor thoughts.
>
> As the wikipedia article remarks
> --------
> *Double spacing* at the ends of sentences is a typographical  
> convention
> that has sometimes been termed *English spacing*. Since the mid-1990s,
> it has often been termed *French spacing*, although that term has
> traditionally referred to the practice of single spacing.
> --------
> Double-spacing between sentences was taught as standard in the UK in  
> my
> youth (i.e. some time ago, admittedly :-), and is still the custom for
> many, e.g. me as you can see here.  It may well be that use of
> word-processing tools that auto-format to single-spacing have made it
> less common.

> On Nov 12, 2008, at 6:33 AM, Niall Ross wrote:
>
>> Dear Runar.,
>>    minor thoughts.
>>
>> As the wikipedia article remarks
>> --------
>> *Double spacing* at the ends of sentences is a typographical
>> convention
>> that has sometimes been termed *English spacing*. Since the mid-1990s,
>> it has often been termed *French spacing*, although that term has
>> traditionally referred to the practice of single spacing.
>> --------
>> Double-spacing between sentences was taught as standard in the UK in
>> my
>> youth (i.e. some time ago, admittedly :-), and is still the custom for
>> many, e.g. me as you can see here.  It may well be that use of
>> word-processing tools that auto-format to single-spacing have made it
>> less common.
>
> Irony. Niall and I had this discussion not more than a week ago. We
> were noticing each others different habbits and discussing how we'd
> got there. Once upon a time, double spacing was taught. I remember it
> very clearly from typing class in high school. When I was in College,
> our Tech Writing teacher said it was on the outs, and left it up to
> us, as long as we were consistent. And now days, single spacing is
> definitely taught.
>
> --
> Travis Griggs
> Objologist
> "Every institution finally perishes by an excess of its own first
> principle." - Lord Acton
>
>
>
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