2009/12/5 Clayton <[email protected]>: > Johnny Rosenberg wrote: >> As a non English speaking person that's very interesting. In Swedish >> there has never been an extra space required and I started to learn >> English at school in 1975, and nobody ever mentioned an extra space. >> So exactly when did this change from being required to NOT being >> required? >> >> On the other hand, in 1975 we didn't use computers at school so maybe >> that's why they didn't mention anything about spaces… > > The two spaces after a full stop thing links way back to the days of > typewriters, and a need for an em-dash sized space after the full stop. > It wasn't actually a requirement of the English language... just a > standard used by typists (using typewriters that used monospaced fonts), > that was influenced by traditional typesetting standards and norms from > the 19th century. > > >> And I am curious about another thing as well: I have noticed that many >> people writing in English adds an extra space right before a ”!” and a >> ”?”, which is very ugly and at least in Swedish very wrong. Has that >> been required too in the past? > > This also links back to the days of typewriters, and something called > "French spacing" which for reasons only truly known by people at the > time, inserted extra single spaces before and after punctuation marks. > > Depending on who you consult on it, the gradual change to single space > after a full stop started anytime from the 1950s to the 1990s. The real > trend is most noticeable with the more common use of variable width > fonts and computers with office and DTP apps. > > Anyone who took traditional typing classes in school, using real > typewriters (like me) were likely taught to double-space after a full > stop. The habit stuck, and I still do it even in my emails :-)
I actually took typing classes in school (around 1980, maybe 1981) and I don't remember anything about double spaces, but then again, I typed in Swedish. Yes, it was real typewriters. I actually had a typewriter at home (my father's but I used it all the time in the second half of the 1970's). Johnny Rosenberg > > > C. > -- > Clayton Cornell [email protected] > OpenOffice.org Documentation Project co-lead > Sun Microsystems, Hamburg, Germany > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
