From: Frank da Cruz (fdc@columbia.edu)
Date: Mon Jul 07 2003 - 14:27:29 EDT
> Unicode already defines with character properties those punctuations that
> terminate sentences. Why would you need to recognize sequences of two spaces
> as meaning an end of sentence??? This would be wrong to select sentenced in
> a preformated plain-text, even in English...
>
Because it has "always" been done that way, e.g. in EMACS, ever since the
days before we had 50 kinds of spaces and 100 kinds of quotes.
You don't have to put two spaces after a sentence-ending period unless you
like how it looks, or you want software such as EMACS and TeX to recognize
the end of the sentence, which you might care about (e.g. in EMACS) if you
want to use commands like "erase this sentence" or "jump forward three
sentences" or "transpose sentences".
I vaguely recall seeing this same discussion play out some years ago. EMACS
aside, it's still an interesting question why -- in English at least -- it
was customary thoughout the 20th century to put two spaces after a period
when typing. I expect it must have been an aesthetic decision. What else
could it have been?
- Frank
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