Re: [xml2rfc] Word enforcing 1 space between sentences

Science is on the side of us over-40s:

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/one-space-or-two-spaces-after-a-full-stop-scientists-have-finally-found-the-answer-a8337646.html

Jay (whose mother is a typesetter and knows more about this than anyone else I’ve met)

> On 1/05/2020, at 7:58 AM, Carsten Bormann <cabo@tzi.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi Bob,
> 
>> On 2020-04-28, at 21:12, Robert Moskowitz <rgm@htt-consult.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I recently saw a fluff piece about MS Word now enforcing 1 space between sentences.  If you put in 2 you get the terrible squiggly line (which you can always turn off with a right-click, ignore all).
> 
> As Bret said, this probably can be configured.
> 
>> The argument for single space is the font handles inter-sentence spacing just fine as mono-spacing went out with the typewriter....
> 
> Well, this is a long story I don't want to re-tell here.
> Let's just say that there are some typographic fashions that don't respect the prime directive: Legibility.
> I tend to ignore those.
> 
> But as Bill notes, the question of typographic presentation is somewhat distinct from the keyboarding convention.
> People who expertly keyboard manuscripts for usage by document processing systems always try to indicate where sentence ends are and where they aren't.  
> The document processing system can then decide on the presentation style of the day.
> 
> A double space is a conventional signal for keyboarding a sentence end; it has been for half a century now.
> As is a newline.
> 
> I am (and I'd want to believe most people who have been using document processing systems since the 1970s are) used to the latter: end each sentence with a newline.
> Look, ma, no double spaces in the manuscript, and still clearly indicated sentence ends!
> (And look how much more readable the message becomes that way.
> And, you'll notice, your git diffs do, too!)
> 
> Grüße, Carsten
> 
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-- 
Jay Daley
IETF Executive Director
jay@ietf.org