on spaces

swingers cast

*Mikey</b>: So how many spaces do you guys use after a period?
**Trent
: one
Mikey: Just one?
Trent: well no.. one, and then another.
Mikey: so two spaces..
Trent: yeah, I guess you could call it that.. two spaces.
Sue: definitely. two spaces. that’s like industry standard
Trent (to Sue): you know, I used to use two spaces. Now everyone in town uses two spaces.. Three spaces is kinda money now, don’t you think?
Sue: … Yeah. But two’s enough not to look anxious…
Trent: Yeah.. two’s enough not to look anxious, but three spaces is kinda money..
Mikey (interrupting sarcastically): Why don’t I just use 21 spaces and 1 blank page for every written one
Charles: .. and some oxford commas
Mikey: Yeah, I’ll use three oxford commas and 21 spaces.. How’s that, T? Is that “the money”?
*laughter*
Trent: Laugh all you want, but if you use too few spaces, you can scare off a nice baby who’s ready to party.
Sue: Don’t listen to him. You use as many spaces as feels right to you.
Mikey: So how many spaces are you guys gonna use?
Trent & Sue (in unison): 6 spaces.
*</p>

(Some context, if you uh.. don’t follow the grammar circuit: http://www.slate.com/id/2281146/)

(And some other context, for those of you who haven’t seen Swingers, in which case you must go rent it IMMEDIATELY: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aN4w2AfkEY)


Comments

I have tried to use only one space, you know, like the kids do. God knows I’ve tried. That 7th grade typing class just won’t let me do it.

the Slate guy is just a douchebag.

He keeps skipping over the fact that in typesetting there is a bit of extra space added after periods. It’s there for clarity; people do want more space to delineate sentences.

It’s just that in typesetting, automatic kerning takes care of it so that you don’t have to. But if you’re using a monospace font, then you have to type the extra space yourself. Which is why the typewriter classes taught that and the same reasoning continues to apply.

Never mind that some of us still live in a monospace world. (cf. everyone who writes software…)

Yeah, I think it’s SO CUTE that the slate guy thinks email doesn’t use a monospaced font.

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