RE: Spaces after full stop

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Lauren wrote:
 
> What seems to be at issue here is if there is a "true" rule, 
> which, apparently there is not, although there are guides 
> with rules and, in spite of a decidedly true rule, what 
> convention do we prefer?  I don't think that even a poll will 
> decide which convention is "right," but I am interested in 
> what people prefer and their decisions for reaching that 
> preference.  But anyway...

I prefer a single-malt scotch, especially Caol Ila. 

Oh, you're talking about spaces! Well, the descriptivists would argue
that there's no such thing as a "true" rule, there are only observations
of what people are doing today. The prescriptivists would point to CMS,
etc., and say those _are_ the true rules. 

I didn't learn to type until after the advent of PCs and LaserJets with
proportional fonts, so I never learned to type two spaces -- I'm
definitely in the one-space camp. 

My decision is bolstered by the software I primarily use, FrameMaker. If
you enable Smart Spaces (in Format > Document > Text Options), FM won't
permit two consecutive spaces, and its spell check will flag them, so
they're easily removed from mistyped (<grin>) material I get from
others. 

Fans of two spaces will find to their sorrow that FM has no
corresponding feature for "correcting" the work of us once-space
aficionados. So you know which camp Adobe is in. :-)

Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------




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