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Comment by ginko | Hacker News Reader

I used GNU typist[1] when I picked up touch typing.

The only weird thing was that it insisted on two spaces after a period which I think is stupid, so I replaced all double spaces with single ones in the tutorial files.

[1] https://www.gnu.org/savannah-checkouts/gnu/gtypist/gtypist.h...

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If you run the GNU Emacs tutorial, you will also find the hint to use two spaces after a sentence. Emacs (and possibly other programs) can such distinguish between abbreviation points and sentence endings. E.g., M-a and M-e jump to the start and ending of a sentence.

I think that may be the style of the older generation - remember my grandparents doing this when I first started using a computer.

Also, I never actually use it personally but a double space on a Mac keyboard automatically enters a period and a (single) space for you.

Great now i feel old. I was taught to use double space after periods.

I will happily continue double spacing until my fingers curl in death. Except on my phone: whatever it does, I've determined, is beyond my control.

Same!

It was only 6-7 years ago that I switched to single spaces.

The double-space after the period is good when using a monospaced typewriter, because for readability there should be more space between sentences than between words (not twice as much, but that's the best you can do with a typewriter unless it has a half-space.)

Now that most writing is done on word processors that use proportional fonts and manage the spacing themselves, it's no longer called for.

Double spaces after a period is a holdout from the typewriter era, designed to improve legibility with monospaced fonts.

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