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Two Spaces After Period Are Better Than One, Except Maybe They Aren't, Study Finds

posted by Fnord666 on Friday May 11 2018, @12:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the BBC-thinks-it's-a-paragraph-break-after-a-period dept.

MrPlow writes:

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.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05/two-spaces-after-period-are-better-than-one-except-maybe-they-arent-study-finds/

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday May 11 2018, @03:05PM (4 children)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 11 2018, @03:05PM (#678406) Journal

    Sometimes, with HTML, you have to do things that look odd.  That is, until they are rendered.  Then, they look normal.  Well, normal-ish.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Friday May 11 2018, @04:29PM

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 11 2018, @04:29PM (#678449) Journal

    No kidding.
    .
    It's ridiculous having to put in other characters to get the spacing I want between lines.

    --
    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11 2018, @04:53PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11 2018, @04:53PM (#678473)

    Careful with those  , they can lead to odd line wrapping.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11 2018, @09:05PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11 2018, @09:05PM (#678569)

      Took me a ridiculously long time (like, 10~15 years) to realize that   is not just a "space", but a "non-breaking space". Heh. Of course, I only occasionally dabbled in some HTML, but still.

  • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday May 11 2018, @10:43PM

    by hemocyanin (186) on Friday May 11 2018, @10:43PM (#678599) Journal

    Sure -- but typing out an HTML character code is not the same as hitting the spacebar twice.