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Re: English double spaces after punctuation, was: About dpkg translation, please consider i18n when choosing words



MJ Ray <mjr@phonecoop.coop> writes:

> Clytie wrote:
>> Double spaces are not valid in English. I have no idea why they =20
>> are used in some .po files. I always remove them.
>
> They are taught in English schools and regarded as pretty
> usual. At least, schools who still teach typing. Even fmt puts
> two spaces by default. Publishers often want "uniform spacing,"
> but then you get some like Elsevier (big journals publisher)
> that have the opposite in their submission guidelines:
> http://authors.elsevier.com/GuideForAuthors.html?PubID=622785&dc=GFA
> The same habit usually happens after ! and ? too.
>
> It's usual and taught, and so valid in English. That's why
> you'll find some people who were taught typing using them.
> (I don't, but mostly because I used computers to write for
> publication and groff, latex, xhtml and all don't care much.)

FYI, depending on your style sheet, LaTeX will use larger spacing at
senctence end.  You actively have to escape this behaviour for in
sentence punctuation.  With "frenchspacing" the spaces at sentence end
are as large as in sentence.

BTW, this is an orthography issue, really, and has nothing to do with
language proper, AFAIC.  I'd suggest translators use whatever is most
appropriate for their culture.

> I appreciate the need to simplify matters, but avoid misleading
> people with exaggeration, as it causes confusion later.

-- 
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