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Comment by gnicholas | Hacker News Reader

But what of sentences that end with an abbreviation that ends in a period, like "U.S."? If it's just one space after a period, it's impossible to know that the sentence has ended? I realize in books or published articles this can be typeset in a smart way to make it distinguishable, but what about in ordinary writing?

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Exactly. "I live in the U.S. I am happy." requires a bit more cognitive work to parse if spaces after sentence-ending periods are not wider.

EDIT: For completeness, here is that same text with an extra space: "I live in the U.S. I am happy." -- see how much easier that is to read? Sure, it's not that big a deal, but it's definitely kind to the reader.

Regarding your edit, it appears exactly the same :(. The browser collapses whitespace. I'm not sure if HN's comment system will allow you to double-space after a period, other than in a <pre> block:

    I live in the U.S. I am happy.

    I live in the U.S.  I am happy.

Ay, thanks.

Your double space was collapsed by the browser.

British: I don't live in the US. I am happy.

Full stops aren't generally used in abbreviations here, Mx Cryptonector.

Though there's a more recent trend to write "Nato" rather than NATO, which annoys me for the inconsistency that arises. Plenty of people pronounce VAT as one word, or PAYE, but these are usually left in capitals.

Nato (but VAT) has been preferred by the Guardian style guide [0] for a long time. I've never understood it.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-a

The Guardian also does eg and ie, which, equally, I've never understood.

As Churchill said, we're two cultures separated by a common language.

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