I’ve never had a preference either way - consistency within a document has always been more important to me than having one space or two. I find myself doing find/replace on reports I co-write...
I’ve never had a preference either way - consistency within a document has always been more important to me than having one space or two. I find myself doing find/replace on reports I co-write with my bosses to ensure uniformity because they’ll haphazardly use two spaces and it’s easier to convert all the two spaces to one than vice versa.
Articles of the form "everyone said X, but now here's one single study proving them all wrong" seem like bad science reporting to me. In real science you need to weigh the body of all evidence -...
Articles of the form "everyone said X, but now here's one single study proving them all wrong" seem like bad science reporting to me. In real science you need to weigh the body of all evidence - this one seems to acknowledge then disregard all previous studies so that it can focus solely on the latest one.
I get what you’re saying and agree in priciple, especially about bad science reporting. However, I think this article and its headline are far more tongue-in-cheek than you give it credit for. The...
I get what you’re saying and agree in priciple, especially about bad science reporting. However, I think this article and its headline are far more tongue-in-cheek than you give it credit for. The author fully acknowledges that it’s only one study and that plenty of others contradict it. He also talks about the flaws in this study, e.g. the researchers used a mono space font for the eye tracker tests (and he explains why that is a problem). He even talks about how absolutely minimal the study found the benefits of double space to be and that the only people who showed any benefits from using double space while reading were those who used double space while typing to begin with. This new study was merely used as the excuse to talk about the subject, its history and mess around with funny/unique typography throughout the article.
edit: maybe I contributed to this problem too by posting it to ~science instead of ~misc?
I took keyboarding in High School (late 90s), and was taught that two spaces go after a period. The teacher would specifically check assignments to make sure that two spaces were used. It's taken...
I took keyboarding in High School (late 90s), and was taught that two spaces go after a period. The teacher would specifically check assignments to make sure that two spaces were used. It's taken me a long time to unlearn doing this, simply because it looks wrong (even though most of keyboarding was spent cutting and pasting content as quick as possible so we could go back to murdering each other in GTA II).
I used to be a double spacer. Back when I learned it really pissed some people off that I double spaced consistently (I blame catholic school training), I decided to look into what other people...
I used to be a double spacer. Back when I learned it really pissed some people off that I double spaced consistently (I blame catholic school training), I decided to look into what other people said. Since most people seemed pretty inconclusive on the topic and most modern fonts automatically create a little extra space after a period, I figured I'd bend to peer pressure.
That said, sometimes I'll still unintentionally double space after a period. If anyone ever notices (re: no one), then I'll apologize and blame nuns. Otherwise I just try to stay consistent with one approach or another.
I feel like I should have heard about this. Not saying it's not true, but are you sure? The closest thing I can think of is that, unlike monospaced ("typewriter") fonts, most modern fonts use...
most modern fonts automatically create a little extra space after a period
I feel like I should have heard about this. Not saying it's not true, but are you sure?
The closest thing I can think of is that, unlike monospaced ("typewriter") fonts, most modern fonts use variable lengths for different characters, so many letters are closer together (think, "i", "l", and so on), which makes words "stick together" more, thus making periods more prominent in contrast.
Huh... I also went to catholic school during my formative years when first learning to type. I wonder if that is where the divide between single and double space has been perpetuated.
Huh... I also went to catholic school during my formative years when first learning to type. I wonder if that is where the divide between single and double space has been perpetuated.
I think I still do double spaces, but I think the hard stops go by too fast for me to really know what I'm doing, and if I really think about it, then I stop doing the double tap.
I think I still do double spaces, but I think the hard stops go by too fast for me to really know what I'm doing, and if I really think about it, then I stop doing the double tap.
I’ve never had a preference either way - consistency within a document has always been more important to me than having one space or two. I find myself doing find/replace on reports I co-write with my bosses to ensure uniformity because they’ll haphazardly use two spaces and it’s easier to convert all the two spaces to one than vice versa.
I agree with this. as long as it's consistent throughout, one or two spaces need not matter overmuch. The important part is that it looks neat.
Articles of the form "everyone said X, but now here's one single study proving them all wrong" seem like bad science reporting to me. In real science you need to weigh the body of all evidence - this one seems to acknowledge then disregard all previous studies so that it can focus solely on the latest one.
I get what you’re saying and agree in priciple, especially about bad science reporting. However, I think this article and its headline are far more tongue-in-cheek than you give it credit for. The author fully acknowledges that it’s only one study and that plenty of others contradict it. He also talks about the flaws in this study, e.g. the researchers used a mono space font for the eye tracker tests (and he explains why that is a problem). He even talks about how absolutely minimal the study found the benefits of double space to be and that the only people who showed any benefits from using double space while reading were those who used double space while typing to begin with. This new study was merely used as the excuse to talk about the subject, its history and mess around with funny/unique typography throughout the article.
edit: maybe I contributed to this problem too by posting it to ~science instead of ~misc?
I took keyboarding in High School (late 90s), and was taught that two spaces go after a period. The teacher would specifically check assignments to make sure that two spaces were used. It's taken me a long time to unlearn doing this, simply because it looks wrong (even though most of keyboarding was spent cutting and pasting content as quick as possible so we could go back to murdering each other in GTA II).
Everquest taught me to type anyway.
Hah. It taught me to moderate. Someone had to run the forums, after all. :P
The real bomb shell reading this is that 21 out of 60 people use two spaces after each sentence. I never have seen this in the wild.
I’m a double spacer. It was ingrained in me as a child. It’s not a preference so much as an unbreakable habit at this point. :/
I used to be a double spacer. Back when I learned it really pissed some people off that I double spaced consistently (I blame catholic school training), I decided to look into what other people said. Since most people seemed pretty inconclusive on the topic and most modern fonts automatically create a little extra space after a period, I figured I'd bend to peer pressure.
That said, sometimes I'll still unintentionally double space after a period. If anyone ever notices (re: no one), then I'll apologize and blame nuns. Otherwise I just try to stay consistent with one approach or another.
I feel like I should have heard about this. Not saying it's not true, but are you sure?
The closest thing I can think of is that, unlike monospaced ("typewriter") fonts, most modern fonts use variable lengths for different characters, so many letters are closer together (think, "i", "l", and so on), which makes words "stick together" more, thus making periods more prominent in contrast.
Huh... I also went to catholic school during my formative years when first learning to type. I wonder if that is where the divide between single and double space has been perpetuated.
I think I still do double spaces, but I think the hard stops go by too fast for me to really know what I'm doing, and if I really think about it, then I stop doing the double tap.
I just noticed I do double-taps on iOS because it automatically writes a period+space. Which is kinda funny.