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Em dashes are amazing

psychotechnology.substack.com

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Re: Em dashes are amazing

#91

Post by WillAdams »

mc32 wrote: post #87
douglee650 wrote: post #72

Author failed to explain the dash universe and their semantic assignments. - em dash: adjoining thought (Hey, so — ) - en dash: expresses a range (1–100) - dash: compounds word-parts (Sarbanes-Oxley) I'd also like to see more concise philosophy around em v. ellipsis, "limerance" is poetic (and ironically antithetical to this "essay" … and what of parens?). In short, em is communication and ellipsis is personal. I off…

Which one is the minus symbol?

None, it is a separate character/code point and is notable for aligning with the + and having the same width.

Re: Em dashes are amazing

#93

Post by adverbly »

eddyg wrote: post #80
usui wrote: post #77

You might think em dashes are amazing—but there is something three times better⸻the "three-em dash" (U+2E3B). Why this thing exists, I do not know. Unicode people seem to like making bad decisions, like Han unification and emoji sprawl.

"It is (and, increasingly, was) used to signify that a bibliography entry has the exact same author(s), editor(s), translator(s), or corporate author(s) as the previous bibliography entry." https://danieljtortora.com/blog/3-em-dashes

That is so stupid.

Absolutely does not deserve a new character just for that(especially one that is so unusually large).

Whoever introduced that is absolutely drunk on power.

The only reason that exists is because of a power discrepancy where the people with powers to create new characters are also the ones who do enough writing that they feel such a specific and niche pain.

Re: Em dashes are amazing

#94

Post by anonthrownaway »

andsoitis wrote: post #25

One thing I've always loved about Apple's OSs is that they will render an em dash if you press-and-hold the hyphen key. Great accessibility.

-----------------------------------------

huh?

Oh - you meant iOS. I don't see a need to differentiate dashes there either...

Re: Em dashes are amazing

#95

Post by andsoitis »

anonthrownaway wrote: post #94
andsoitis wrote: post #25

One thing I've always loved about Apple's OSs is that they will render an em dash if you press-and-hold the hyphen key. Great accessibility.

----------------------------------------- huh? Oh - you meant iOS. I don't see a need to differentiate dashes there either...

sorry, I meant iOS. on macOS you have to Option + Shift + Hyphen.

Re: Em dashes are amazing

#96

Post by WillAdams »

anonthrownaway wrote: post #90
ryandrake wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wie shood I bothr lerning two spel wen teh vass majarrity ov reedrs can stil reed dis commnt?

Wrong analogy. Why should I bother to differentiate between the length of a dash when the vast majority of readers don't have a clue what it means (and don't need it to determine meaning).

Because it looks better and is a guide to communication.

For the poster child of a naïvely set/composed text which suffers thereby see:

https://blog.lostartpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/vir...

That a book about a perfectly made tool cabinet suffers from so many typos (the maker's name, Henry, is mis-spelled on the inside cover) and such pedestrian composition embodies much of what went wrong when the typesetting unions all bargained for sinecures rather than active participation in the Desktop Publishing Revolution.

Re: Em dashes are amazing

#97

Post by treetalker »

douglee650 wrote: post #72

Author failed to explain the dash universe and their semantic assignments. - em dash: adjoining thought (Hey, so — ) - en dash: expresses a range (1–100) - dash: compounds word-parts (Sarbanes-Oxley) I'd also like to see more concise philosophy around em v. ellipsis, "limerance" is poetic (and ironically antithetical to this "essay" … and what of parens?). In short, em is communication and ellipsis is personal. I off…

Fun fact! Where a compound term is formed by joining two nouns of equal importance — such as Sarbanes–Oxley or attorney–client privilege — an en-dash, not a hyphen, should be used.

Re: Em dashes are amazing

#98

Post by MengerSponge »

douglee650 wrote: post #72

Author failed to explain the dash universe and their semantic assignments. - em dash: adjoining thought (Hey, so — ) - en dash: expresses a range (1–100) - dash: compounds word-parts (Sarbanes-Oxley) I'd also like to see more concise philosophy around em v. ellipsis, "limerance" is poetic (and ironically antithetical to this "essay" … and what of parens?). In short, em is communication and ellipsis is personal. I off…

Sounds like you'll appreciate my favorite related bit of typographic dash pedantry, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/em-dash-en-dash-how-...

If you want to be official about things, use the en dash to replace a hyphen in compound adjectives when at least one of the elements is a two-word compound.

    the pre–Websterburg Bakery era
The thinking is that using a hyphen here, as in “the pre-Websterburg Bakery era,” risks the suggestion that pre attaches only to Websterburg. It’s unlikely, though, that a reader would truly be confused.

n.b. I don't know how to code an endash here. Would love to learn!

Re: Em dashes are amazing

#99

Post by walkerbrown »

usui wrote: post #77

You might think em dashes are amazing—but there is something three times better⸻the "three-em dash" (U+2E3B). Why this thing exists, I do not know. Unicode people seem to like making bad decisions, like Han unification and emoji sprawl.

I’m curious, what is the objection to Han unification?

Re: Em dashes are amazing

#100

Post by snowwrestler »

Em dashes—if properly used—are really useful.

They help convey that I am so smart—and I think so fast—that I have to constantly interrupt myself.

But—and I think this is important—it’s really easy to overuse them.

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