Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 15:26:57 -0400 From: "Troy Settle" <troy@picus.com> To: <freebsd-chat@freebsd.org> Subject: RE: Punctuation conventions (was: cvs commit: src/games/fortune/datfiles fortunes) Message-ID: <NIEBLEDADLBOBAJFKPHDGEGACAAA.troy@picus.com> In-Reply-To: <20000601180144.A233@parish>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Ok... I was just summarizing what others were saying and tossing in my own .02. Greg said one space. Someone else from AU said 2. Yet another person indicated that his British friends said 2. I know 2 from my own typing class back in '84. so... -Troy ** -----Original Message----- ** From: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG ** [mailto:owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Mark Ovens ** Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2000 1:02 PM ** To: Troy Settle ** Cc: Mark Blackman; Greg Lehey; Stephen McKay; Tim Vanderhoek; ** freebsd-chat@freebsd.org ** Subject: Re: Punctuation conventions (was: cvs commit: ** src/games/fortune/datfiles fortunes) ** ** ** 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 ** > ** ** > ** ** > ** To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org ** > ** with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message ** > ** ** > ** > ** > ** > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org ** > with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message ** ** -- ** ...and on the eighth day God created UNIX ** ________________________________________________________________ ** FreeBSD - The Power To Serve http://www.freebsd.org ** My Webpage http://ukug.uk.freebsd.org/~mark/ ** mailto:mark@ukug.uk.freebsd.org http://www.radan.com ** ** ** ** To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org ** with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message ** To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?NIEBLEDADLBOBAJFKPHDGEGACAAA.troy>