On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 18:52:54 -0000, designer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Surely, the argument against the double space is only a short step away from > it's logical extension: don't have paragraphs either, just have continuous > text . . .? > > The logic behind both is surely the same?
No. The logic behind double-spacing after periods was that it was necessary in order to increase legibility during the age of the typewriter. And even during those days, professional typesetters did not use double spaces. Now that the typewriter has mostly gone the way of the dodo it's hard to make an argument for keeping the convention. Paragraphs, meanwhile, are a logical -- not a visual -- device. Just as a sentence is one or more self-contained thoughts, a paragraph is one or more related sentences. Often the first sentence of a paragraph introduces an idea, and the remaining sentences support or elaborate upon it. So it's hard to see an argument for doing away with paragraphs just because we don't double-space after periods any longer; the more logical extension of the argument presented here (as others have already pointed out) would be double-spacing *all* punctuation: colons, semicolons, commas, etc. Which makes no sense as it is completely at odds with existing conventions of English writing. And I stand by my original comment that CSS word-spacing or something like it would be the best practice for increasing space between sentences when necessary; inserting additional hard spaces (via or similar) in the content is inflexible and mingles the presentation into the content, while keeping the spacing adjustment in the CSS allows the presentation to be tailored to different classes of users as necessary. Which is really the main accessibility benefit of CSS, as I understand it. -- "May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house." -- George Carlin ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
