On Thu, Jun 22, 2006 at 09:24:51PM -0600, Chad Perrin wrote:
On Thu, Jun 22, 2006 at 10:33:27PM -0400, Jay R.
Ashworth wrote:
On Thu, Jun 22, 2006 at 12:21:28PM -0600, Chad
Perrin wrote:
Would requiring spaces on either side of the
double dash before
converting it into an emdash improve the parsing behavior any?
Please don't.
<snob type=typography>
Em dashes are properly set in English text without spacing on either
side, though the ASCIIography of this usage is much less picky.
If someone decides that it needs to be " -- " that's mapped, at least
take the spaces out when setting the glyph?
</snob>
. . . except that the notion that it's strictly "foo--bar" instead of
"foo -- bar" is a relatively recent phenomenon, and in times past
whether or not there was a space was largely a matter of taste, regional
custom, and (even farther back) what leads the typesetter had on-hand
when he was laying out the page for pressing.
Ok, then you're more of a typography snob than me. :-)
I will admit, having seen it both ways, that in typsetting, it tends to
look better to me with little spacing (a shim worth), but in ASCII
text, I tend to put in the spaces, as well.
Clearly, if this is done, it needs to be considered whether surrounding
spaces should be eaten by the parser.
Cheers,
-- jra
--
Jay R. Ashworth jra(a)baylink.com
Designer Baylink RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates The Things I Think '87 e24
St Petersburg FL USA
http://baylink.pitas.com +1 727 647 1274
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
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