Werner, On Sat, Oct 04 2014 at 08:26:49 AM, Werner LEMBERG <w...@gnu.org> wrote: >>> Please use two spaces after a full sentence stop. >> >> It's OK for me to use 2 spaces after a full sentence. But I'm not used >> to it, I've always been taught to use a single-space after a full stop >> (French spacing ?!). I've just noticed that a lot of people on the list >> use 2 spaces after a full stop. What is the main reason ? I googled on >> this subject, I found out that two spaces are more traditional but less >> and less used. Also, isn't groff by default displaying a single space >> after a full stop ? > > The main reason is to make an editor's `end of sentence' feature work, > this is, to move forward or backward in `sentence units'. With only a > single space, you would stop at abbreviations also.
I've just read Emacs' documentation on fill commands and sentences. Makes sense. > For similar reasons, you shouldn't insert a space before `?' or `!' > while writing English texts: This feature only exists in French > typography, and other locales probably don't know that there must be > no break at the space before such punctuation characters. Thanks for the explanation. I was aware of this difference only for the colon punctuation mark, but not for `?' or `!'. Regards, -- Bertrand Garrigues
