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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: 3, Informative) by stretch611 on Friday May 11 2018, @08:13PM
I was always taught to use 2 spaces after a period. (Yes, I am old... at least they were electric typewriters at the time...)
Ofc, I am a developer, including web development, and HTML ignores all extra whitespace. regardless of fixed or variable width fonts. The last time I read a newspaper or a book, a lot of those use justification with variable spacing to force both left and right borders which can alter spacing between letters as well as between words.
Regardless of whether or not you type a double space or not, most of the time it will not make a difference in the format that eventually is shown to the reader. The rare times that it is apparent are so infrequent, only the most anal people are going to notice and/or care. (Like the so called grammar nazis;and its not like anyone cares about their opinion.)
(Note: I realize that their are tags/styles that can force recognition of whitespace in HTML/CSS but I never use them myself, and rarely see them used by others.)
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P