Re: should . be followed by doublespace?

[Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>]

On Wed, Aug 07, 2002 at 01:23:27PM -0400, Daniel Barclay wrote:
> From: Thanasis Kinias <tkinias@optimalco.com>
> > ... the placement of quotation marks inside of punctuation come to
> > mind.
> 
> I've seen that a lot for computer-related quotes.  Is that
> more common in UK English for non-computer-related quoting?

My impression is that quotation marks inside punctuation is more common.
That said, I seem to remember being taught the opposite at school.

The Jargon File seems to agree that quotes-inside-punctuation is more
common in the UK than in the US:

  Consider, for example, a sentence in a {vi} tutorial that looks like
  this:
  
       Then delete a line from the file by typing "dd".
  
  Standard usage would make this
  
       Then delete a line from the file by typing "dd."
  
  but that would be very bad -- because the reader would be prone to
  type the string d-d-dot, and it happens that in `vi(1)' dot
  repeats the last command accepted.  The net result would be to delete
  *two* lines! 
  
  The Jargon File follows hackish usage throughout.
  
  Interestingly, a similar style is now preferred practice in Great
  Britain, though the older style (which became established for
  typographical reasons having to do with the aesthetics of comma and
  quotes in typeset text) is still accepted there.  "Hart's Rules" and
  the "Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors" call the hacker-like
  style `new' or `logical' quoting.

Cheers,

-- 
Colin Watson                                  [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]