Re: Multiple spaces converted into one

On Sep 4, 2006, at 3:23 PM, Peter Kerr wrote:

> drifting OT ;-)

Oh, surely not!  {;-}

> I never used hot lead, but I understand that the space-space  
> convention came from many years bad habits on mechanical  
> typewriters which could not insert a "true" em-space.

I don't know that I'd call it a bad habit; it does make it easier to  
read and the bottom line of writing is about communication, so  
anything that makes that better isn't bad.

> Some computer proportional fonts have added trailing space in the  
> "period" character, to eliminate the need for two ASCII spaces at  
> the end of a sentence.

But then that isn't correct either for a decimal in the middle of a  
number, which should have the same spacing on each side, or for a  
mark indicating an abbreviation ("Mr.", "Dr.", "Prof.", or even  
"Wm."), which should be followed by an en-space, not an em-space.

> Now that we have a unicode em-space, and browsers that recognise it  
> (and behave accordingly ;-) content providers who wish to use an em- 
> space, should insert   or   or at least their editor eg.  
> Amaya should optionally do it for them. ...

But do browsers recognize it and "behave accordingly"?  A quick test  
with Firefox indicates that it gets the width right, but the height  
wrong (a line with an em-space is taller than surrounding lines with  
no em-space); moreover, it doesn't wrap the line at such a space.   
Until such support is present and universal, I suggest that nbsp- 
space is the best tack.

Hope this helps,
-- Greg Noel, retired UNIX guru