At 6:57 am -0400 7/7/04, dhbailey wrote:
You must have had the same typing teacher I did -- that's what I was taught, too.
Most of us did, at least those of us in the US.
She was one of the unsung heroes of the 20th century. Capable of existing in multiple locations by almost instantaneously shifting between them this graying 50-something crusader could terrify students into abject subjugation to her edicts with a single scornful look...
I can still feel the pain in my left ring finger from the infamous "Too Light Ss" incident.
At the time two spaces after the period was considered the standard. I followed it for many years even though I thought if looked ugly: _particularly with the mono-spaced fonts of the day's typewriters_. With today's proportional fonts, on a screen, for quick viewing, the difference is almost indiscernible.
I changed over to (what I felt) was the more natural feeling, and looking, single space after a period when it became more acceptable in the 80s.
Part of my reason was very pragmatic. When typing on a computer I sometimes hit the space bar twice (or hold it long enough to register twice) when typing. Because of this I usually search a document for two spaces and replace with one before sending it out. Two spaces after a period totally screws that up.
The ultimate purpose of typing is to communicate the ideas clearly, not to nitpick over whether a person uses two spaces or one space after a sentence.
Isn't it?
I should think so.
I don't even notice two spaces after a period unless I have to view a message in a non-proportional font to see a table or something.
Worrying about spaces after a period seems more petty than useful. The immediacy of the web causes all sorts of typo-grammatical anomalies. Better we should focus on those than conventions which may, or may not, improve readability.
Or maybe we shouldn't focus on syntactic/punctuational/grammatical errors that don't obfuscate the meaning of the person speaking and just reply to the gist of the message in the hope of furthering the exchange of useful information.
Nah...That would make too much sense (and wouldn't be near as much fun ;)....
-=-Dennis _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
