- From: Abigail <abigail@ny.fnx.com>
- Date: Sat, 28 Sep 1996 16:08:37 -0400 (EDT)
- To: www-html@w3.org
Carl Morris wrote: ++ ++ | > Formally, in the English language there are situations apon which ++ extra ++ | > space is inserted between items. Some examples include the two ++ space ++ | > after a period ending a sentence and the two spaces between the ++ state ++ | > and zip code in an address. Do people suggest this extra space be ++ | > maintained in HTML documents and how do people propose to do it? ++ | ++ | The "language" has no such needs; those are just old typewriter ++ | conventions that have no place in typeset text, and an HTML doc ++ | is typeset text. The spacing after a sentence or before a ZIP ++ | code is entirely up to the browser/style sheet. ++ ++ No, not quite... The renderer can't make any decisions on this matter, ++ "insufficient information".. including two spaces in the HTML source is ++ not a very good hint... But you can use: <SPAN CLASS = "US-ZIP">New York 10110</SPAN> and use a style sheet. Or you use: <PRE>New York 10110</PRE> ++ | If, for some reason, you want to force the issue rather than ++ | letting the renderer make those decisions, you can certainly ++ | tell the browser your intentions with s or <span>s with ++ | an appropriate style. But as you point out, browsers vary in ++ | their ability to take a hint. In the long run, you might as ++ | well leave the text alone to preserve the integrity of the data, ++ | and trust that over time, browsers will come to display it most ++ | appropriately for their environment. ++ ++ No, that will NEVER happen... There is not a single chance that any ++ browser will ever display "typeset" text without being told where to do ++ this at... I have to argue that LYNX's way of taking the hint is not ++ very good, and the NBSP way of hinting at it is again not very good... ++ maybe some new tags need to be brought out into existance? ++ ++ <SENTENCE>This is a sentence.<SENTENCE>A this is another... ++ ++ Anyway, I think the point stands ... "hinting" is not a good idea ... ++ while I can't stress it as a requirement, something that litterally ++ denotes that a larger space should be made would be more appropriate... ++ HTML 3.0 supposedly had something like this... You don't need a <SENTENCE> element. It isn't that hard to use some extra spacing after the period ending a sentence. Let browser authors look at the code Knuth is using in TeX; it is only occasionally where TeX does it wrong. For such exceptions, one can use a style sheet to correct the spacing. ++ And I don't know about you, but my english teacher would have flunked ++ me for not including two space between sentences in any typed or ++ electronic written work... Seems to me its a requirement! :( (he'd ++ also require double spacing and etc...) It's not a requirement, but a convention which seems to be US-based. Usually, the intrasentence space is a little wider than the intraword space (though in justified text, those spaces are _flexible_), but it is a lot less than twice as much. Using two spaces isn't "right" either; it just "rounds up" the other way. Abigail
Received on Saturday, 28 September 1996 16:06:23 UTC