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Adobe FrameMaker includes a switch called "Smart Spaces" which allows no
more than one space between any two characters in an entire file. One
advantage to this: It eliminates the need (obligation?) to search/change
three spaces to two, then two spaces to one if and only if the two spaces
occur anywhere other than between the end of a sentence and the beginning
of another, etc., etc., etc. This "Smart Spaces" switch also eliminates
debates over whether to use two spaces or one after colons and semicolons,
and eliminates the need to check an entire document for two spaces after
every period, exclamation point, and question mark.
If nothing else, the single-space rule enormously simplifies the
punctuation-space spell-checking process. With the rule, and without an
automated "Smart Spaces" feature, spell-checking the punctuation spaces is
as simple as replacing all multiple-space instances with a single space.
Without the rule, plan on spending an (obligatory?) afternoon meticulously
checking an entire document to change or ignore double spaces according to
their instance-specific application (and so on).
That a premier long-documentation software bothered to include a
single-space switch probably says something about the prevalence and
sensibility of the style.
Personally, I've found tenacity and authority the overriding "arguments"
for maintaining the two-space rule. Empirically and financially, the
one-space rule makes sense.
