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Regarding the Em Dash

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Re: Regarding the Em Dash

#121

Post by lwhi »

Symbiote wrote: post #115
lwhi wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm incredibly happy that the em dash is gaining the attention it deserves. However, if honest—I am also a little upset that the good people the comments section are tending towards placing white-space around each dash and the text it forms an abutment with. This space is not needed.

The space is conventional in Britain. Without the space looks strange to me. (Android users — try long pressing the - key in the punctuation menu.)

I disagree [1]; pick up a book that's been typeset, and look for an em dash. I doubt you'll see any spaces.

[1] https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar/dash-and-em-dash

Re: Regarding the Em Dash

#123

Post by Freak_NL »

quadrangle wrote: post #65
cryptonector wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two hyphens is plenty. Three is calling attention to it. One is pitiful. While we're on this subject, wide spacing between sentence-ending periods and the next sentence is the Right Way (tm). In ASCII that's two spaces. We're not animals. Let's behave accordingly.

Multiple hyphens are awful — learn to use your compose key!

The compose key and its composition tables are a thing of beauty — you can even compose an uppercase ß (ss) these days: ẞ (SS). It's such a shame that neither Windows nor MacOS (or the mobile operating systems for that matter) provide this feature out-of-the-box.

Re: Regarding the Em Dash

#124

Post by Freak_NL »

Symbiote wrote: post #118
Dylan16807 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would help if you didn't have to install special software to get a compose key.

On Linux, you don't. > setxkbmap -option compose:menu For example. There will be a dialog somewhere too.

> There will be a dialog somewhere too.

In Ubuntu Unity and — I think — Gnome Shell:

Keyboard settings » Shortcuts » Typing » Compose key

Re: Regarding the Em Dash

#125

Post by Freak_NL »

anjbe wrote: post #106
colanderman wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I’m a big fan of the compose key for such matters. (Both OS X and Linux.) The mnemonics I find easier to remember. • Compose . . → … • Compose " → “ and ” • Compose ' → ‘ and ’ • Compose / = → ≠ • Compose + - → ± • (couldn't figure out ≈) • Compose • Compose > = → ≥ • Compose o o → ° • (no compose for π)

> (no compose for π) You can create your own compose sequences in ~/.XCompose. I mapped pi to Compose * p, taking the idea from Plan 9: https://9fans.github.io/plan9port/man/man7/keyboard.html

If a particular compose sequence strikes you as sensible and suitable for everyone, you can submit patches upstream as well. I believe the base tables reside in Xorg, and GTK uses these as an upstream source, but I'm not completely sure.

I've did this for vowels with macrons — ā (-a), ō (-o), ū (-u), in particular because they are useful in romanised Japanese.

Re: Regarding the Em Dash

#127

Post by SquareWheel »

bmpafa wrote: post #16
seandougall wrote: post #15

Am I the only curmudgeon who can’t get past the extra space after periods in a post about punctuation?

Nope. Raging against double-spaces post-period was all the rage a few years back[1], so I'm sure it raises quite a few curmudgeonly hackles. [1] http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/...

I see this article quoted all the time, and every time I read it I get frustrated again.

>But I actually think aesthetics are the best argument in favor of one space over two. One space is simpler, cleaner, and more visually pleasing.

Okay, great? So your best argument is that you subjectively prefer it over two spaces.

>The diners included doctors, computer programmers, and other highly accomplished professionals. Everyone—everyone!—said it was proper to use two spaces.

Ah, but our valiant author sure was ready to put them in their place!

I find this whole article oozes condescension and faulty logic, and I can't help but get my dander up whenever I see it referenced.

Re: Regarding the Em Dash

#128

Post by cup-of-tea »

combatentropy wrote: post #20

The em dash is the most beautiful punctuation mark, all the more because it is rare --- and it is best kept that way. Certainly a sentence with more than two is imparsible. In fact, more than a few in a whole article is probably getting annoying. It's like the exclamation point in that way. Once you discover the em dash, it is hard to restrain yourself. But I'm trying to come back to the comma. It does its work witho…

Note that it is correctly typeset---as in the article---with no spaces around it.

Re: Regarding the Em Dash

#130

Post by cup-of-tea »

ReidZB wrote: post #62
DamonHD wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two dashes are an en dash or a range for me --- so 1--3 is my hyphen encoding count range!

That's how it works in TeX as well: one dash is a hyphen, two an en dash, three an em dash.

And a fourth is the minus symbol, in maths mode $-$.
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