On 14 Aug 2002, it is alleged that Parish sauntered in to
netscape.public.mozilla.mail-news and loudly proclaimed:
> Jay Garcia wrote:
>> On 14/08/02 05:35, Wayne Alligood Replied As Follows:
>>
>> --- Original Message ---
>>
>>> I took typing for three years while in school. Two years for 'mechanics'
>>> and one year for 'speed effiency'. In those years, I was taught that two
>>> spaces appeared after a period. With this knowledge, I have typed that
>>> way throughout my adult life; however, I have noticed of late, that many
>>> in the computer world use only 'one' space after the period. Is this a
>>> normal habit in the world of computing? Is it 'one' or 'two' spaces
>>> after the period? Can someone tell me that really knows? No opinions
>>> mind you, just the facts.
>>>
>>> So, why did I ask such a question in this newsgroup? Because I have
>>> noticed that when I use two spaces after the period, using
>>> Mozilla/Netscape mail/news client, that I often get mis-alignment on the
>>> left hand side of my writing. If I use a single space after the period,
>>> that never occurs. If I use Outlook Express and use two spaces after a
>>> period, and that period ends at the end of the right side, that OE will
>>> re-align the left hand side for me. I hope that this makes some sense
>>> to someone out there.
>>>
>>> Can someone clue me in on this behavior using Mozilla mail?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>
>> The only reason that two spaces were used after a period during the
>> typewriter age was because original typewriters had monospaced fonts.
>>
>> The extra space was needed for the eye to pick up on the beginning of a
>> new sentence. That need is negated w/proportional space type, hence the
>> single space after a period is the typographic standard.
>>
>
> Hmm, interesting comment Jay. I'm correct in thinking that you are
> American, yes? I ask because I always understood the "2 spaces after a
> period" to be an American thing. Here in the UK I've never used 2 spaces
> after a full-stop (period) and neither has anyone else that I know of.
Actually, it's an old typographical convention (double space after both a
full stop and a colon). I've never bothered to research it, but like most
things typographical it probably varies considerably depending on time and
place (like, say, conventions regarding en- and em-dashes).
I'm considerably younger than Jay, and live in country to the immediate
north of his (OK, OK, there's only one country to the north of the U. S.),
but was also brought up with that convention. Never the less, there are a
lot of people both older and younger than I who will use single spaces after
both a full stop and a colon.
Basically, it seems that there /is/ no set convention for it. I've always
preferred a double space after both colon and full stop, but that's a
personal thing; it seems to improve readability.
> vi(1) will use 2 spaces if you Join 2 lines where the first ends in a
> period, as will Emacs (although Emacs has an option to make it use a
> single space).
>
> I suspect that the problem the OP is seeing is to do with one or more of
> the bugs related to whitespace in Mail Composition. I can't find the
> exact bug at the moment but if a printing character is the 72nd (or
> whatever you have wrap set to) and you type a space the caret doesn't
> move, but when you type another printing character (after the space) the
> char appears on the next line. However, if you type 2 spaces then a
> printing char, the next line begins with a space.
I don't seem to encounter the problem with plain text; just with HTML -- and
just when a double space will wrap to a new line. I do recall this having
come up several months ago, and someone commenting that it was a bug, but I
don't recall a reference to a bug being given. If it's something that only
occurs with HTML mail, it's hardly surprising: the second space is a non-
breaking space. Still, it's one quirk about Moz that can annoy me at times.
/b.
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