A postdoc of mine came up and was giving me a hard time about spacing in a paper we are writing, claiming that putting 2 spaces after a period before the next sentence was wrong and that it should be one, at which point I scoffed and told him he was full of it. I had learned the rules in high school: two spaces after a period; two after a colon; and one after a semi-colon. Then he downloads and shows me that they are now teaching our Yoot to only put in ONE SPACE after a period! it's apparently some decision someone made after everyone started word processing instead of using a typewriter!. In fact, this silly board is editing my text and taking out the spaces as i write this complaint!...WHAT'S THIS WORLD COMING TO! RAM, HELP!
"...Dogs and Cats...Living Together...Total Anarchy!"...Bill Murray
Yep. One space is standard. And I was the last Ph.D. class to take a written doctoral exam--all have been administered (at least at Illinois) since on a laptop.
I believe that is another thing for which we can thank Bill Gates (AKA "anti-Christ"). I learned the same rules as John, and had never heard of such a thing until I started using MS programs. Maybe that's not where it originated, but those programs - especially web authoring programs - were the first time I ever heard of such a thing.
Yikes! You know that the end is near when they start messing with your post-period spacing. Think of single-spacing as justified by justification, a trade-off for having your deathless prose adjusted without the need for human interference, so that it will look better on the printed page. Compare these two versions of a paragraph from Encyclopedia Britannica. The one on the left was typed with two spaces between sentences before it was justified; the other, with one space. Note the ugly, wide gaps in the left paragraph.
My meaningless thesis was done so long ago I used a standard typewriter. Who gives a rat's butt about spacing when the contents are likely a piece of cr-p anyhow (not your work John! Just the other World's Leading Scientists).
Bad Bob
And if the copy had been set flush left and unjustified(ragged right) there
wouldn`t be ANY wide ugly gaps between words. Electronics have changed our typographic world, adobe has *bass with mustard*ized many fonts to fit their system
not good. Many letter shapes have changed, so the original designers would
flip out in anger.
it's apparently some decision someone made after everyone started word processing instead of using a typewriter!. In fact, this silly board is editing my text and taking out the spaces as i write this complaint!...WHAT'S THIS WORLD COMING TO! RAM, HELP!
