Double space for the win!

[Dukasaur]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/05/04/one-space-between-each-sentence-they-said-science-just-proved-them-wrong-2/?utm_term=.764d73402500

In the beginning, the rules of the space bar were simple. Two spaces after each period. Every time. Easy.

That made sense in the age of the typewriter. Letters of uniform width looked cramped without extra space after the period. Typists learned not to do it.

But then, at the end of the 20th century, the typewriter gave way to the word processor, and the computer, and modern variable-width fonts. And the world divided.

Some insisted on keeping the two-space rule. They couldn't get used to seeing just one space after a period. It simply looked wrong.

Some said this was blasphemy. The designers of modern fonts had built the perfect amount of spacing, they said. Anything more than a single space between sentences was too much.

And so the rules of typography fell into chaos. “Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong,” Farhad Manjoo wrote in Slate in 2011. “You can have my double space when you pry it from my cold, dead hands,” Megan McArdle wrote in the Atlantic the same year. (And yes, she double-spaced it.)

(...)

So the researchers, Rebecca L. Johnson, Becky Bui and Lindsay L. Schmitt, rounded up 60 students and some eye-tracking equipment, and set out to heal the divide.

First, they put the students in front of computers and dictated a short paragraph, to see how many spaces they naturally used. Turns out, 21 of the 60 were “two-spacers,” and the rest typed with close-spaced sentences that would have horrified the Founding Fathers.

The researchers then clamped each student's head into place, and used an Eyelink 1000 to record where they looked as they silently read 20 paragraphs. The paragraphs were written in various styles: one-spaced, two-spaced, and strange combinations like two spaces after commas, but only one after periods. And vice versa, too.

And the verdict was: two spaces after the period is better. It makes reading slightly easier. Congratulations, Yale University professor Nicholas A. Christakis. Sorry, Lifehacker.

[jonesthecurl]

Never heard of this nonsense until I came to the US. One space. Why more?

[riskllama]

Never heard of this nonsense until I came to the US. One space. Why more?

100% agree. 2 spaces is bad for the environment, duk. soo wasteful...why not just throw your trash on the front lawn while you're at it?

[DoomYoshi]

Two spaces is something I learned in skool, like Canada is the largest country or that Liberals aren't soul-sucking lunatics. Ergo, it must be wrong.

[TA1LGUNN3R]

I learned two spaces back in middle school when we had to take keyboarding. It's habit at this point and seems proper. Agree with duk.

[Neoteny]

I learned two-space typing in school and used it egregiously when padding pages for essays, but once length stopped mattering I abandoned the double space as papers just look better without the artificial inflation and anyone who continues using two spaces after a period post-grade school is a monster.

The aesthetics is worth the 2% speed decrease or whatever these hacks decided was significant enough to publish.

[notyou2]

I use 2 periods..

[HitRed]

Large number in Europe don't use the ",". Maybe like the single space they are saving "ink" or time. I found the "," helps a lot reading numbers.

100,000
Americans include the ","

100 000
Europeans just leave the space open.

Maybe someone knows more on this.

HitRed

[DoomYoshi]

Large number in Europe don't use the ",". Maybe like the single space they are saving "ink" or time. I found the "," helps a lot reading numbers.

100,000
Americans include the ","

100 000
Europeans just leave the space open.

Maybe someone knows more on this.

HitRed

Its because in French a comma means decimal. Sort of like a Germany, 7 doesn't mean 7 but you have to draw a line through it. That's how you can tell someone is a Nazi since they only do that in the countries with Polish Death Camps, like Poland, Russia, Poland, Hungary etc.

[TA1LGUNN3R]

What about Poland?

[Symmetry]

https://xkcd.com/1989/

[Symmetry]

I learned two-space typing in school and used it egregiously when padding pages for essays, but once length stopped mattering I abandoned the double space as papers just look better without the artificial inflation and anyone who continues using two spaces after a period post-grade school is a monster.

The aesthetics is worth the 2% speed decrease or whatever these hacks decided was significant enough to publish.

I'd agree, more or less- it looks a little juvenile. Purely from an aesthetic standpoint it makes each sentence look more stand-alone and breaks the flow of an argument, as if a kid was writing a piece one sentence at a time rather than looking at the piece as a paragraph or as a whole.

That said, I also don't like double line spacing, and that's a fairly common rule for university department style guides. I usually just settle with 1.5.

[riskllama]

Large number in Europe don't use the ",". Maybe like the single space they are saving "ink" or time. I found the "," helps a lot reading numbers.

100,000
Americans include the ","

100 000
Europeans just leave the space open.

Maybe someone knows more on this.

HitRed

Its because in French a comma means decimal. Sort of like a Germany, 7 doesn't mean 7 but you have to draw a line through it. That's how you can tell someone is a Nazi since they only do that in the countries with Polish Death Camps, like Poland, Russia, Poland, Hungary etc.

i do that.

[Symmetry]

It's more common in continental Europe. A seven without a line is usual in the UK. I'd usually use a comma with numbers though.

[TA1LGUNN3R]

I wonder how many single-space shitheads like cramped surroundings? Like, is your desk or work area all cluttered?

Neo, does your lab bench resemble a janitor's storeroom?

[Neoteny]

Image is shit because I have a broken camera lens.



Eh, I've definitely seen worse.

[mrswdk]

@TG My desk is almost completely clear of anything. Cluttered desks are for people who add two spaces after their full stops - the sort of farts who print out documents to read and take notes on notepads, then just leave all of those things piled up everywhere.

[Bentelbow]

Image is shit because I have a broken camera lens.



Eh, I've definitely seen worse.

You could spin 2dimes on that spin plate and see which one wins..

[Symmetry]

When I write an essay or an article, my desk tends to be hugely cluttered, at least to an outside observer. Also all the spaces around my desk- floor, surfaces...

It's not disorganised, it's more that I need to have all my resources marshalled and within reach. Organised disorder, if you like.

That said, I won't have anything irrelevant on my desk while I'm writing.

[mrswdk]

Have you heard of computers? They're a great way of storing all your notes and articles in one place, rather than having to scatter them all around you like a cliche scene from a murder mystery TV programme.

[thegreekdog]

I learned two-space typing in school and used it egregiously when padding pages for essays, but once length stopped mattering I abandoned the double space as papers just look better without the artificial inflation and anyone who continues using two spaces after a period post-grade school is a monster.

The aesthetics is worth the 2% speed decrease or whatever these hacks decided was significant enough to publish.

Length always matters.

I wonder how many single-space shitheads like cramped surroundings? Like, is your desk or work area all cluttered?

Neo, does your lab bench resemble a janitor's storeroom?

I learned double space throughout high school, college, and law school. I now type in single space because... um... communism? For what it's worth, I'm hyper organized and not cramped at all. But I am lazy and therefore efficient so typing one space instead of two saves me lots of time that I can use on more important matters. Think about those seven to ten seconds you waste typing an extra space... fools.

[nietzsche]

Have you heard of computers? They're a great way of storing all your notes and articles in one place, rather than having to scatter them all around you like a cliche scene from a murder mystery TV programme.

it' just not the same. i bet you're one of those idiots that took notes in class on a laptop. it's not the same..

[mrswdk]

Have you heard of computers? They're a great way of storing all your notes and articles in one place, rather than having to scatter them all around you like a cliche scene from a murder mystery TV programme.

it' just not the same. i bet you're one of those idiots that took notes in class on a laptop. it's not the same..

You're right, it's way more convenient.

[Neoteny]

I never really took Nietzsche as a Boomer. Weird.

[nietzsche]

i will admit that i think there's a possibility that if you had technology (laptops, tablets, smartphones) as a kid, using it to take notes in class might not be a distraction and won't make you to lose focus on what you should be focused on.. but i honestly think that it's in the end a distraction.

i think having things on paper allows for a better understanding.

and i think typing on a laptop during class shifts the focus away from a correct and deep thinking about the subject. i bet mrs wdk was always thinking.. "i wonder if i can watch porn while the professor talks about boring adam smith.. "