Martin A. Hansen wrote: > but if lyx already removes double-spaces, when why not remove space > before , . : ; etc.?
Because going from one to two spaces is a matter of degree and --given that the space length is usually variable in latex, at least for justified text-- indicates that the user is using blanks as a quick-and-especially-dirty shortcut for layout. In contrast, going from zero to one blank is like 1:\infty and arguably a qualitative difference, rather than only a quantitative one. It is not a matter of dirty layout tricks. > > i should say that the problem is quite precisely defined, and no > guessing has to be done. > Can you be 100% sure that there is no good reason to ever introduce a blank before punctuation? I doubt that, and then you would have guess from the context what the user had in mind. Having said that, of course your suggestion makes sense as a user option. And you already suggested how to implement that option: The user should use protected blanks. I have my doubts whether that's the best way to implement the option, but I don't want to keep babbling about "nothing" -- after all it's just empty space ;-)
