Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 18:01:44 +0100 From: Mark Ovens <mark@ukug.uk.freebsd.org> To: Troy Settle <troy@picus.com> Cc: Mark Blackman <tmb@sophos.com>, Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, Stephen McKay <mckay@thehub.com.au>, Tim Vanderhoek <hoek@freebsd.org>, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Punctuation conventions (was: cvs commit: src/games/fortune/datfiles fortunes) Message-ID: <20000601180144.A233@parish> In-Reply-To: <FCEELIAEIIECDGKKJLMIKECDCAAA.troy@picus.com>; from troy@picus.com on Thu, Jun 01, 2000 at 06:50:18AM -0400 References: <20000601111501.A11561@sophos.com> <FCEELIAEIIECDGKKJLMIKECDCAAA.troy@picus.com>
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On Thu, Jun 01, 2000 at 06:50:18AM -0400, Troy Settle wrote:
>
> Ok, so we're agreed. Two spaces at the end of a sentence is what we're
> taught in the US, UK, and AU. Any one from another English speaking
^^^^
Really? Not when I was at school, mind you it was, erm, late 60's,
early '70's. Also ISTR Greg Lehey saying a single space was the AU way
as well.
> country care to share the rules from their freshman keyboarding (typing)
> class?
>
> Just a wild guess here, but I think the rule stems from the laziness of
> some people to abbr. certain words. You see, abbreviations also require a
> period, but if they're not at the end of a sentence, it's noted from the
> single space following. This is also the case in Mr., Mrs., and Ms.
> Though one wonders why an abbreviation at the end of a sentence doesn't
> get two periods followed by two spaces. This is certainly an odd feature
> (bug?) in our language.
>
> The fact that some (most?) people don't use two spaces at the end of a
> sentence is probably due to ignorance, indifference, or laziness. I for
> one, check for those two spaces as part of the proof reading process
> (though I'm not always diligent about proof reading). It gets really
> irritating when doing web pages in a WYSIWYG editor, as most are fond of
> putting a ' ' in the source, which makes for very ugly HTML.
>
> Another spot where these rules bug the hell out of me, is when typing an
> address in Word. I was taught in high school that there are two spaces
> between the state and zip code (i.e. 'City, ST 12345'). Most frustrating
> to see that red wavy line telling me I have an error when I know that I
> don't.
>
> --
> Troy Settle
> Network Analyst
> Picus Communications
> 540.633.6327
>
>
> ** -----Original Message-----
> ** From: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG
> ** [mailto:owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Mark Blackman
> ** Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2000 6:15 AM
> ** To: Greg Lehey
> ** Cc: Stephen McKay; Tim Vanderhoek; freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.org
> ** Subject: Re: Punctuation conventions (was: cvs commit:
> ** src/games/fortune/datfiles fortunes)
> **
> **
> ** I've not done any text analysis of e-mails to discern empirical
> ** usage patterns, however a quick poll of five of my British colleagues
> ** (I'm a "colonial") suggests that in Britain, two spaces is
> ** the rule taught in English and typing classes.
> **
> ** I wouldn't be surprised to discover that a number of people
> ** writing e-mails these days a) completely ignore their teachers
> ** or b) never took any classes.
> **
> **
> ** On Thu, Jun 01, 2000 at 09:50:56AM +0930, Greg Lehey wrote:
> ** >
> ** > I didn't say I was conventional :-) I use the two space convention
> ** > because I find it more convenient. But most text written in
> ** Australia
> ** > or England has a single space after the full stop. Period.
> ** >
> **
> ** --
> ** Mark Blackman,Internet Systems Administrator,Sophos Anti-Virus
> ** e-mail: tmb@sophos.com http://www.sophos.com
> ** US Support: +1 888 SOPHOS 9 UK Support: +44 1235 559933
> **
> **
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>
>
>
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--
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