One space or two

Potential-Monke

So I'm sitting here at my desk in work, literally melting (i'm ginger), so the mind is not at all focused on work. I remembered reading that in typing, 1 space is now used instead of 2 spaces in typing. The 2 spaces comes from the typewriter days, where all characters were given the same amount of space on the page and 2 spaces were used to make it more readable.

When I learned how to type, I'm pretty sure I was told it was 2 spaces. I never typed on a typewriter, so only on desktop bricks from the 80's/90's. And still, to this day, I use 2 spaces after my sentences, even in this thread the more eagle eyed of you will notice.

However, it bothers me not what other people use. But I'm bored at work so I Googled it and learned that it's acceptible both ways these days, but the 2 space is dying out.

Then, I came across this article from this bellend.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/space_invaders.html

Now, I've never heard of Slate before, so maybe it's just full of bellends in general, but he seems to take the 2 space thing very personally. He even gets right upset at the start, and half way through comments that 'Type professionals can get amusingly—if justifiably—overworked about spaces.' Did he not read the first 2 sentences in his own article?

Yes, there's plenty more to worry about if you want, but I don't want to, I'm melting at work, i've no drive to do anything, so this seems like a good way to pass the time until 10...

So, varied and crazy peeps of AH, are you a spacer, or 2 spaced?

AllForIt

I'm spaced out after reading all that.

Star Bingo

I’m a looper

Bunch a loopers

Signore Fancy Pants

This post has been deleted.

Conall Cernach

You mean 2 spaces after a full stop to start a new sentence? That's correct still.

Chev_Chelios

I'm a one spacer, two spaces looks a bit untidy imo.

Silent Running

I thought the thread title was about BMW drivers' parking.

dotsman

Conall Cernach wrote: »

You mean 2 spaces after a full stop to start a new sentence? That's correct still.

Agreed but, for me, only in formal (published) documentation. I wouldn't bother doing it in regular emails, docs, boards posts etc.

One space after comma or period.

Two spaces looks wrong, but doesn't annoy me even nearly as much as a space before a comma, or commas used as apostrophes, or no spaces after commas or periods.

I can use too many commas, which I'm sure also annoys the heck out of people.

Your Face

w t f

NinetyTwoTeam

It's always been one space and if you use two you are doing it wrong, simple as. And the only reason you are doing it is because some other person who did it wrong taught you to do it wrong. I actually do find it offensive, not just because it looks daft, but because if you ever try to correct someone on it, the person will, without fail, insist that two spaces is correct.

I find two spacers tend to be more likely to do other annoying things like:

- pronounce library as 'liberry'

- write 'been' instead of 'being', when they clearly mean being, simply because they pronounce it without the g. This drives me insane. It's like 'Well, I don't bother to pronounce it right, might as well just write it that way even though it's a totally different word. (I only notice Irish people doing this, though oddly none of them will write three as tree). I suspect these people don't even know that the word being exists.

- stand in the middle of supermarket aisles or footpaths staring at something, totally oblivious to other people trying to get past them. I guess you could say it's another form of a lack of 'spatial awareness'.

facehugger99

Potential-Monke wrote: »

So I'm sitting here at my desk in work, literally melting

Figuratively

Potential-Monke

No no, i'm literally melting. Already lost my hands. Typing with what's left of my nose at the moment. Will have to move onto my dick soon to type, won't be doing 2 spaces with that.

And yes, to end a sentence, so after . , ? ! or any other sentence ending punctuation.

NinetyTwoTeam

Conall Cernach wrote: »

You mean 2 spaces after a full stop to start a new sentence? That's correct still.

Ask anyone who designs fonts, typesets books on literary magazines, and they'll tell you different. It has never been correct, but became common for a time, a time which is long past.

I can't understand why anyone who isn't, say, a retired secretary who spent decades typing on an IBM Selectric is doing it in this day and age. Fonts have been designed proportionally for ages, even pre-dating the rise of affordable home PCs. There is no reason to do so. I'm not am OCD type person, in fact I'm a lazy slob, but when my eyes hit those extra spaces it's like going over a pothole in a car with bad shocks it jars me so much.

Like I said in my post above, it can only be down to just people being taught by people who are doing it wrong.

dxhound2005

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The Backwards Man

A pen in the hand knows not the meaning of two spaces.

Mrs OBumble

NinetyTwoTeam wrote: »

It's always been one space and if you use two you are doing it wrong, simple as.

It hasn't.

When I learned to type of manual type-writers in the 1980s, the copy they produced was in Courier, which is a non-proportional font. Two spaces after the full-stop at the end of a word was the correct way to make the end of a sentence stick out. And you'd love marks in your Pitman's exams if you didn't do it that way (yes, they measured).

Now that most people use computers which render type in proportional fonts, it's not necessary anymore.

Old touch typists like me still do it, because that's how our thumbs were trained. It's dying out as we do - but I figure I've got another 20-30 years to go yet!

Donald Trump

Got as far as "Ginger"

Too disgusted to read any further

28064212

Potential-Monke wrote: »

And still, to this day, I use 2 spaces after my sentences, even in this thread the more eagle eyed of you will notice.

They won't actually, since two (or more) spaces are rendered. e.g. My next line, when composing it, was two '#' symbols with 10 spaces between them:
# #
So you're pressing space twice for no reason whatsoever (and apparently didn't notice that there was no difference)

pleas advice

D o u b l e _ S p a c e d.

Subcomandante Marcos

Conall Cernach wrote: »

You mean 2 spaces after a full stop to start a new sentence? That's correct still.

This is outdated. Most academic journal reviews will comment on this practice these days. I've made it part of recommendations for amendments before publishing myself and have beaten it out of some nature students.

looksee

NinetyTwoTeam wrote: »

Ask anyone who designs fonts, typesets books on literary magazines, and they'll tell you different. It has never been correct, but became common for a time, a time which is long past.

I can't understand why anyone who isn't, say, a retired secretary who spent decades typing on an IBM Selectric is doing it in this day and age. Fonts have been designed proportionally for ages, even pre-dating the rise of affordable home PCs. There is no reason to do so. I'm not am OCD type person, in fact I'm a lazy slob, but when my eyes hit those extra spaces it's like going over a pothole in a car with bad shocks it jars me so much.

Like I said in my post above, it can only be down to just people being taught by people who are doing it wrong.

Done both the above, also used (trained on) manual typewriter. Typing on a manual typewriter should be/was all single spaces except after a full stop and before a new sentence. Typesetting or typing on a computer etc should be all single spacing including between sentences. There should be no space before punctuation on either computer or manual typewriters.

OU812

Friend of mine in recruitment told me that 2 spaces are routinely used as an age filter when cutting CVs.

Generally older people do it. And without realising, give away that they’re of a certain vintage.

SEPT 23 1989

What are you typing rooster?

Potential-Monke

28064212 wrote: »

They won't actually, since two (or more) spaces are rendered. e.g. My next line, when composing it, was two '#' symbols with 10 spaces between them:
# #
So you're pressing space twice for no reason whatsoever (and apparently didn't notice that there was no difference)

Well damn, you are correct! Stupid modern formatting... At least it gives me something to give out about as I age. Damn kids and their modern technologies. They never knew the hard times when we had to type 2 spaces! /oldbeforemytime

Subcomandante Marcos wrote: »

This is outdated. Most academic journal reviews will comment on this practice these days. I've made it part of recommendations for amendments before publishing myself and have beaten it out of some nature students.

God damn nature students, with their hippy-dippy ideas about loving nature... *shakes fist*

I've been consciously trying to not add a second space since this thread, and my automatic reaction is to add 2...

CelticRambler

looksee wrote: »

There should be no space before punctuation on either computer or manual typewriters.

... until you change languages, and then all the rules you grew up with go out the window!


I learnt the two-space rule for typewriter typing, carried it over to my first documents on an Apple 1 or whatever it was that my dad brought home from work some time in the 80s, but by the time I could afford my own PC, I'd learnt that modern word-processing software (like Microsoft Works :pac: ) used weird stuff like em-spaces and en-spaces in all the right places, so we could all just type and go!



And then I moved to France and had to get used to an AZERTY keyboard and remembering to leave a space before colons and semi-colons and question-marks, and to put commas in places they never belonged before ...


So feck it; I'll take whatever spaces are on offer as long as I can still use a real keyboard instead of a touchscreen. :cool:

Capt'n Midnight

Skidmore College sounds like a place where people wear their underpants on their head, but science rocks :cool:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-05-space-period-sentence.html

A trio of researchers at Skidmore College has found that text with two spaces after the period in sentences allows people to process the information they are reading faster.

Capt'n Midnight

OU812 wrote: »

Friend of mine in recruitment told me that 2 spaces are routinely used as an age filter when cutting CVs.


Generally older people do it. And without realising, give away that they’re of a certain vintage.

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