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posted by
Fnord666
on Friday May 11 2018, @12:26PM
from the BBC-thinks-it's-a-paragraph-break-after-a-period dept.
from the BBC-thinks-it's-a-paragraph-break-after-a-period dept.
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
In what may be one of the most controversial studies of the year, researchers at Skidmore College—clearly triggered by a change in the American Psychological Association (APA) style book—sought to quantify the benefits of two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence. After conducting an eye-tracking experiment with 60 Skidmore students, Rebecca L. Johnson, Becky Bui, and Lindsay L. Schmitt found that two spaces at the end of a period slightly improved the processing of text during reading. The research was trumpeted by some press outlets as a vindication of two-spacers' superiority.
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Two Spaces After Period Are Better Than One, Except Maybe They Aren't, Study Finds
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(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11 2018, @02:02PM (6 children)
In the absence of accurate natural language processing by the computer, the only feasible solution is to have the user specify which type of space is desired.
For example, TeX does it by using different macros for end-of-sentence versus abbreviations. The vast majority of period-space sequences in English end sentences so this is the default. You can write "M.\ Lentilla" (this inserts a non-breaking space) which is usually correct, or M.~Lentilla if the situation calls for a breaking space.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11 2018, @02:17PM (4 children)
> You can write "M.\ Lentilla" (this inserts a non-breaking space) which is usually correct, or M.~Lentilla if the situation calls for a breaking space.
It's the opposite, "~" is the non-breaking space.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday May 11 2018, @02:52PM (3 children)
Let me ask the TeX experts. What do you do if you want your document to contain a symmetrical double quote? Like the ASCII double quote. TeX seems to convert them to an asymmetrical one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11 2018, @03:49PM
Search around for TeX "straight quotes" or "dumb quotes". I got a few results, but there doesn't seem to be a "canonical" way, everyone seems to have their own, and it's always clumsy to use and/or has some caveats. The best I've seen seems to be the macro "\textquotedbl", but the required includes mess with some other stuff.
(Score: 2) by melikamp on Friday May 11 2018, @06:46PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11 2018, @08:52PM
That is the preferred way to get asymmetrical, "smart" quotes, literally the opposite of what GP asked for :)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Friday May 11 2018, @05:35PM
That's way easier than just hitting the biggest button on the keyboard twice!