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Comment by jjgreen | Hacker News Reader

Suggestions: spaces after commas, and use a proper en-dash instead of a hyphen for ranges ("2006–2009") and an em-dash for punctuation-dash ("expirer — Auto-magically delete ...")

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In formal writing, like a resume, I tend to shy away from such nuance. I will only use a dash for a range, if needed. Otherwise, rather than dashes or such, proper usage of commas, semicolons, and colons will usually suffice.

Informal writing gets anything and everything. I'll mix it up all over the place, but I don't differentiate between the various dashes: You'll get a single dash and like it, dang it!

What is the difference between the two dashes?

They don't have the same width (more or less visible depending on the font): the hyphen (-) is for joining, the emdash (–) is for separating. The difference in width create a different "rhythm" in text. Yes, it's subtle, as it's usually the case for typography.

Length (or width, if you think in terms of width and height). An en-dash is the width of a capital N; an em-dash is the width of a capital M. (Hence the names.)

They have different lengths and purposes.

There's the hyphen (-) you are used to then there's the en dash (–) and the em dash (—).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash

>An em dash (or an en dash) denotes a break in a sentence or to set off parenthetical statements.

>The en dash (but not the em dash) indicates spans or differentiation, where it may be considered to replace "and" or "to" (but not "to" in the phrase "from … to …")

>The em dash (but not the en dash) is also used to set off the sources of quotes

They also have ramifications for the systems that consume them. If a system is ascii and using extended ascii then globalization presents some specific challenges around these groovy usages of the seemingly innocuous little flat line.

Do you prefer "2006–2009" or "2006 – 2009"?

I prefer "2006 – 2009", but with a thin space.

Do you know how to enter thin spaces on Mac OS? What’s the Unicode value?

thanks for pointing out, I'll update the resume this weekend.

Then you might also want to consider that your spelling of your master's institution differs from the one used on their website as well as the usual spelling of the poet's name (Bharathidhasan vs Bharathidasan).

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