Re: Suggestion to add "spacing between sentences" to CSS3 Line WD

On Mon, 16 Dec 2002, Shelby Moore wrote:
>
> At 09:12 PM 12/16/2002 +0000, you wrote:
>> On Sun, 15 Dec 2002, Shelby Moore wrote:
>>> 
>>> Suggest the CSS3 deal with the controversy over whether to use a double or
>>> single space between sentences [...]
>>
>> Define "sentence".
> 
> Clever :)  Is this a hazing test?

No, it's the reason that we haven't added this to the spec yet.


> "A grammatical unit that is syntactically independent and has a subject
> that is expressed or, as in imperative sentences, understood and a
> predicate that contains at least one finite verb."

This definition raises more questions than it answers: define "grammatical
unit", "subject", "expressed", "understood", "predicate", and "finite
verb", in terms of XML and CSS.


> Obviously your point must be that "sentence" will be different in different
> languages, but so are many other things in CSS.  Or your greater point is
> that there is no explicit sentence markup.

Well, we already have the rather baffling problem of "what is a word".
Adding "what is a sentence" is asking a lot of implementors.


> In English language a sentence ends with a period or question mark followed
> by space(s), or end of paragraph.

Nope!

The number 200? (we're not sure about the final digit) doesn't end a
sentence.

List item 3. says that this is just one sentence.

Not to mention Japanese sentences, which I understand have no white-space
separation whatsoever.


> And the period or question mark may not have any space before it.

Oh ?

-- 
Ian Hickson                                      )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
"meow"                                          /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
http://index.hixie.ch/                         `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'