Nothing Says over 40 Like Two Spaces After a Period

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/two-spaces-after-period/

by behnamoh • 4 years ago

20 52 4 years ago

It actually makes it easier to parse dense text.

Exactly. That tiny black dot could use a little help from some trailing whitespace. Written text isn't that clear all the time.

eimrine2• 4 years ago

And please stop using QWERTY. Well, of course you are not able to do so but at least do not teach next generation that there are no other layouts.

Overtonwindow2• 4 years ago

My boss and I have gotten into it about this. He puts two spaces after a period, I put one space. I went through and removed his double spaces and replace them with single spaces and he got mad. I’m 40, he’s 60. I learned to type on an Apple II, he apparently did not..

Kinrany• 4 years ago

Consistency for the sake of consistency is pure busywork.

noduerme2• 4 years ago

What about consistency for the sake of presenting a unified writing style across your company? It's definitely important if you're a newspaper.

mbreese• 4 years ago

Wait until you work with someone who codes with tabs instead of spaces.

(Or vice versa if you’re a tabs-person, no judgement).

noduerme2• 4 years ago

I'm the worst. I use tabs, but then I add spaces when one line of code is broken into more than one line on the screen. e.g. I like the second line of function parameters to line up directly under the first, regardless of how long the function name is.

Overtonwindow2• 4 years ago

...Wow. I'm speechless at that. I don't know what I would do to that person in a dark alley....

marginalia_nu• 4 years ago

What's wrong with being over 40?

MattPalmer1086• 4 years ago

Indeed...

(Apparently using ellipses makes me old too)

The only valid culture is what young people do apparently. Being older is not allowed!

typingmonkey• 4 years ago

Satoshi Nakamoto used 2 spaces after a period.

InspiredIdiot• 4 years ago

Let me guess. Every time the block size doubles you'll halve the number of spaces you use?

secretsatan• 4 years ago

So we should still use two spaces in monospaced fonts? Like on this very site?

I used to do it all the time, it took years to stop doing it automatically.

cableshaft2• 4 years ago

The monospaced font here is just while typing a response in the input box, right? It doesn't show up like that in the posts. I don't think that warrants typing with two spaces, especially since it will display in a different, non-monospaced font.

px1999• 4 years ago

The followup link is imo a much better read.

Also a mid 30s double-space person here. We exist!

notRobot• 4 years ago

(2014)

cheschire• 4 years ago

With an important self aware follow up.

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/price-of-snark/

rerx• 4 years ago

The Emacs manual taught me to end sentences with two spaces after the period. https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Se...

5555624• 4 years ago

Emacs is over 40. While GNU Emacs is 37 years old; but, Stallman wrote the first version of Emacs several years before that.

joezydeco2• 4 years ago

I'll stop double spacing when you kids under 40 use proper capitalization, punctuation, and correct they're/their assignment in your business emails. Deal?

capableweb• 4 years ago

ironically; i can stop doing any of those things and itll be visible in my content on the web. but even if you use double-space, the browser will automatically strip that stuff away as a "mistake" if not the web service will do it for you via some ''stripping''.

so youre doomed to loose old man :) You're double-spaces are disappearing automagically.

Just as a reference regarding how br0wsers treat white-space:

In the case of HTML, whitespace is largely ignored — whitespace in between words is treated as a single character, and whitespace at the start and end of elements and outside elements is ignored. Take the following minimal example:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Document_Ob...

nso• 4 years ago

Are you  sure?

kwhitefoot• 4 years ago

loose?

joezydeco2• 4 years ago

You're double-spaces are disappearing automagically

Better than any /s tag. Thanks!

cout2• 4 years ago

Sequences of whitespace are not collapsed when using "white-space: pre-wrap", which more and more sites are using (e.g. Facebook).

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/white-space

eimrine2• 4 years ago

All kids I know can do this. What they can not is not to use images everywhere (animated smiles, stickers, memes).

brudgers2• 4 years ago

Did you mean "u kids?"

luxuryballs• 4 years ago

I’m a few years shy of 40 and I remember using these religiously as a kid typing on the computer. However I don’t remember why or who taught it to me, and I can’t remember when I quit. Probably ended around when I started using AIM and stopped using word processors to write stories.

cableshaft2• 4 years ago

I learned to type with two spaces after a period myself, and resisted switching to one space after a period for several years after it was no longer required, but at his point I switched to one space at least fifteen years ago now, maybe twenty. It's definitely possible to switch.

Eupraxias2• 4 years ago

Well, after reading that article, and particularly the offensive title...

I will most definitely keep using two.

Phrenzy• 4 years ago

I may start. Oh, that was easy.

Edit: They stole my double space!

Eupraxias2• 4 years ago

Don't worry, keep doing it anyway because it just _feels_ right.

wink• 4 years ago

German (nearly 40) here and I hadn't even heard about it until like 10 years ago, from an American.

Fred27• 4 years ago

I assume it's just an American thing. I'm from the UK and nobody here uses 2 spaces either - and however many we use, it's after a full stop.

camsjams• 4 years ago

But this article was published in 2014, so someone "over 40" back then would be about 48+ years old in today's harsh single-spaced modern reality.

cout2• 4 years ago

Why can't I type two spaces after the period and let the software figure out how to typeset it? That's how it worked for years in html, then sites like facebook come along and use "white-space: pre-wrap" to force the extra space to show up, even though it's not a monospace font. What's the reason for this?

tmaly• 4 years ago

Our typing class in high school taught two spaces on old apple 2e computers.

The issue was that the teacher was still using a book out of the 50s.

Eddy_Viscosity2• 4 years ago

As a latex user (primarily, I do use MS word for small docs sometimes), this is moot because it does all the spacing for you on compile. Though, when co-authoring with double spacers, it still bothers me because you can plainly see them in the source text.

brudgers2• 4 years ago

The double period provides rhythm to writing.

With a typewriter...I have one...that rhythm is important.

It separates the rhythm dictated by line length from the rhythm of ideas.

I can, and often do, replace the rhythm of the double space with the rhythm of a double return.

Or, as here, a double enter.

But yes, I am over forty.

Still every generation thinks they invented sex.

hprotagonist• 4 years ago

I double-space because 99% of the time i’m writing in a monospace font and the visual separation is useful.

adjusting the kerning of the final result is what my typesetter is for, so I don’t fret much about it during composition.

el_don_almighty• 4 years ago

Pedantry, warfare for indulgent. Your passion for spaces rises commensurately with the ennui in your life. Are not these the cultural flourishes of nuance that bring social majesty and depth to our world? So quickly we judge, categorize, and discriminate those who defy our narrow acceptance of proper.

Where will you turn for knowledge if only single-spaced bodies of work stand as acceptable to your delicate sensibility? What a poor, daft man that simpleton Einstein must be with his extra spaces.

Let go your hate, extend grace to all, engage sincerely, and be the light.

On the other hand, people who use tabs in code are philistines... there's just no room for them (Bwaahahahahahah)

BenjiWiebe• 4 years ago

I agree with you except s/tabs/spaces/. :)

ryandvm• 4 years ago

I use both, randomly.

pupppet• 4 years ago

It’s so much easier to scan text with two spaces.

Two spaces after a period = end of a sentence. One space after a period = not necessarily end of a sentence.

taylodl• 4 years ago

Hasn't everybody configured two spaces to be replaced by a period and a space? Who is typing periods any more?!

tstrimple• 4 years ago

This is the default on most iPhone apps. May be an OS feature, not sure. It's the main reason I still double space on iOS.

drewcoo• 4 years ago

Ageism. Ageism pretending at propriety.

Disgusting.

egberts1• 4 years ago

Trained on the 1926 Underwood (mechanical) typewriter, complete with margin bells.

Always two spaces.

Anyone know where one can get a black ribbon spool for such a typewriter?

Nothing Says over 40 Like Two Spaces After a Period

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