Wow, this is by far the closest poll I’ve ever seen on the SDMB. Clearly I have found this board’s great dividing issue.
Thanks for your post Bosstone, you enumerated it much better than I would be able to. For clarification, I was attempting a little humor in my first post when I chose the A.C. Doyle example. More generally I would say that the issue with removing the one space vs. two spaces distinction is that it doesn’t allow the reader to distinguish a dialogue tag from a separate action when the line of dialogue ends in punctuation other than a period/comma. You’re right that it’s not usually a problem, but it does come up in other cases - the ‘ejaculated’ one just seems to have the most exaggerated (and funny) difference between the two interpretations.
In the above sentence, the difference in spacing tells us whether the word in brackets is describing the manner of speech or is relating an action committed after the dialogue is spoken. I realize that some of these are debatable as dialogue tags, but I’ve seen them all used so I don’t want to start an argument over whether you can actually sigh a line of dialogue.
When I cut and paste a quote from Westlaw, it comes with only one space between sentences. I have to go in and add an extra space. (even though I know one space is the preferred “modern” method.)
Look, the King James Bible has two spaces. And we all know the KJV was good enough for Jesus. Therefore two spaces was good enough for Jesus. If two spaces was good for Jesus, then it’s good enough for me.
(I’ve been linking to this page for nearly a decade now in threads like these. I actually read it first in The Mac Is Not a Typewriter, by Robin Williams, 1990.)
Good point. With proportionally spaced fonts, it’s often a moot question anyway. I’ve played with seeing how many spaces I would have to add to to equal some amount of text - let’s say 10 characters. It varies by a pretty wide margin IIRC but almost always you need many more space characters - sometimes a ridiculous amount. You really can’t tell the difference on something like Arial, Trebuchet, etc.
So it’s starting to look like a distinction without a difference. If you need to get out a micrometer to tell if it’s one space or 2, then, as much fun as it is to argue and berates one’s opponents (and admit it, it really is fun) it becomes the moral equivalent of arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
Two, because that’s the way I was taught in typing class in the late-80’s. I was in one of the last classes at my HS to use typewriters, they were replaced with computers the year after I took the class.
Sorry, I know it makes me a dinosaur, but I can’t change. I’ve done it so long, it’s too deeply ingrained in me. Now get off my lawn, and turn down that damn racket! It’s not music, it’s noise! Kids these days, with their internets and the MTV’s…
Two. There should be more space between sentences than words. I would like to thank this thread for finally making me realise why older books are easier to read than new ones.
I have a sneaking suspicion that all of these two-spacers also install the toilet-paper roll with the paper leading under instead of over as is proper.
Up until about eight years ago I used two spaces. I switched to one space when I learned it was more correct. It took a long time to overcome the old habit, but I finally did it.
All of my coworkers use two spaces. When I have to edit one of their papers, it drives me nuts. So I do a global replace; I replace all instances of two spaces with one space. Then it’s readable.
I have tried convincing them that we shouldn’t be using two spaces anymore. But our very vocal 60-year-old secretary is fiercely adamant that two spaces is “correct.” :rolleyes:
I don’t think it’s quite as such of a 50/50 disagreement as the poll numbers would suggest. The poll question doesn’t ask whether one thinks one or two spaces is the correct way, but simply asks how many spaces a user types. While some two-spacers will indeed defend their practice as “correct,” I think you’ll find that a lot of the two-spacers are simply admitting that that’s how they happen to type, and that a lot of us understand that it’s a useless gesture, done away with through software/HTML protocol. I do it without thinking because of the ingrained habits of 20 years of pre-proportional-era typing, not because I believe it’s the correct method for modern usage.
I’ve got an MA in Journalism and I’m a reasonably experienced sub-editor, and this thread is the first I’ve ever heard of anyone using two spaces after a full stop (ie, between sentences). I’ve just never encountered it as anything except a typo before.
I do it because it’s a habit that I learned in typing class. Humans tend to keep doing things that they learned as habits, especially things learned in childhood. I learned to put two spaces after a period because if I didn’t, it would count as a typo, and if I had too many typos in a given assignment, it would lower my grade.
Yes, I COULD probably change, but it’s not something that really affects me, and for that matter, it doesn’t affect very many people. If I was a copyeditor or something, yeah, I’d probably change. As my life is now, though, I’m not going to bother to make the effort.
Ye, gods! We go through this every few months. I use two spaces, as I was taught in typing class in junior high. Obviously, I attended junior high during the time of Eleanor of Aquitane. I’d change it because so many people get bent out of shape about it (and, obviously, for the energy savings that can build up quite a bit over time), but two of my best people were pulled from my team for an emergency this week by a vice-president-level manager, which was fine, because we could justifiably scream bloody murder and get some issues out in the open, though it involved many heated, awkward and plain dreadful meetings, and then I found out that the department manager and section manager I’d had the most difficulty with for offering up nothing but losers are, in fact, my department manager and section manager. The section manager was news, but I really don’t have an excuse for not knowing what department I was in. And I bought a new router today and the damn thing is so helpful that it has thus far resisted all attempts to configure it via wired Ethernet because it has a gorram wizard intended to make life easy for people who obviously want different things out of a router than I.
Plus, this morning I found out about the BIG EMERGENCY MEETING MONDAY MORNING! It’s all explained in a clasified document in Mr. S’s office. Mr. S works a 9/80 schedule and was not in today, so I have to get in early on Monday to read up on SOMETHING that’s BIG and you all now know as many details about it as I do. Do I gear my people up for overtime? Do I go in over the weekend and pore over our interface specs in case that’s related? Is it about anthrax? A big meteor? The Undead? (Probably it’s the interface spec – but the thing is that I just don’t KNOW). One woman is leaving for Barcelona tomorrow for two weeks, but she’s really good with whipping up test drivers to isolate certain types of problems. Should I just run out on the tarmac and stop her?
So what I’m saying is that changing into a “One Spacer” is on my list of things to do, but not really very high on the list.
