RE: [Groff] Re: Hyphens and Dashes

[Ted Harding]

On 01-Apr-04 Jeff Conrad wrote:
> One additional difference between an en dash and a minus:
> a minus ('\-' or '\(mi') is the same width a plus ('+' or '\(pl'),
> and if a minus and plus are stacked vertically in a table, they are
> horizontally aligned.
> Although an en dash often will give similar results, this may not
> always be the case.

Good point, Jeff! Note, however, that the sign which is set when
you enter "+" is not the same as what you get with \(pl which is
in the Symbol font: the latter is larger than the "+" from (e.g.)
Times Roman, and is the true mathematical "plus" which matches
the mathematical "minus". My usual technique for both of these
is $+$ and $-$, a quick and easy way to get 'eqn' to do the work!

> I agree with Alejandro's recommendation of the Chicago Manual of
> Style as an authoritative guide to U.S. practice.
> [...]
> I'd use the Chicago Manual with caution outside of the U.S.,
> however; one obvious example of where U.S. practice differs
> from most of the rest of the world is in placing periods and
> commas inside of closing quotes, regardless of context.
> I'm sure there are comparable guides for other countries.

For the UK you can hardly go wrong with "Hart's Rules for Compositors
and Readers at the University Press, Oxford".

There is also a useful text (more useful for how to organise a
publication and references etc than for typography) published
by the Modern Languages Association: "The MLA Style Manual".

All best wishes,
Ted.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <address@hidden>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 167 1972
Date: 01-Apr-04                                       Time: 23:25:13
------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------