Re: Comments about "Multiple spaces converted into one"

On Sep 12, 2006, at 12:25 AM, Irene Vatton wrote:

> The association of a normal space + no-break space is not  
> equivalent to a thick space suggested by American and English  
> typography between two sentences in the same paragraph.

Yes, space+nbsp is not equivalent to the thick space, but that's  
because breaking at the space will leave the nbsp at the beginning of  
the next line.  Using nbsp+space does the right thing.

> Unicode provides about 14 different spaces and I guess that the  
> right solution is a "em space" (  or  ). As I  
> understand Unicode definition a "em space" is a breakable space.

However, it does not seem to be supported correctly in current  
browsers.  Although it's set as a wide space, Firefox also sets it as  
a "tall" space and does not break at one.  Until it's handled  
correctly, nbsp+space seems to be the best alternative.

> It was proposed that Amaya transforms automatically two inserted  
> spaces into space + no-break space (or to a "em space"?).

Although the original statement implied space+nbsp, there seems to be  
some agreement that the proposal should be for nbsp+space.   
Converting two spaces to an em-space provides corner cases that would  
need to be considered: handling a string of more than two spaces,  
positioning in the middle of an em-space, deleting an em-space, and  
so forth.  Converting to nbsp+...+space seems simpler.

> An automatic convertion is probably dangerous because this  
> typography rule doesn't apply to a large set of other languages and  
> the double insertion could be due to an error.

Hmmm...  What languages do you have in mind?  The Latin languages all  
do this (as far as I know; certainly Spanish, German, and French).

There are some people who do not like extra width between paragraphs  
(although I do not understand it myself, since it makes text easier  
to read), so this behavior should be optional.  The issue here is  
whether the option should default to on or off.  I think it should  
default to "on" for several reasons: the behavior is unchanged if  
someone only types one space between sentences and it's usually  
easier to discover how to turn off an option than turn one on.   
However, that's only my preference and there's a case that can be  
made for backward compatibility.

> Probably Amaya has to help users who want to insert non standard  
> spaces and has to manage these spaces correctly.

Concur, particularly since I am one of those users.

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

Received on Tuesday, 12 September 2006 20:21:28 UTC