Re: [Groff] new automake system

[Denis M. Wilson]

It's really off topic, but in the UK in the 1980s, the printers strike
meant the the end of expert typography. The hot metal traditional
expert typography was replaced by crumbly computer software and 500
years of the art and craft of it was lost --- well it was still there
but unknown to the person in the street who assumed universal
publishing power --- ignorant of the difference and meaning of hyphens
and dashes, when to use allcaps, etc, etc --- assuming the "word
processor" was always right... and the appreciation of appropriate
fonts (never use *r**l or t*m*s) was unheard of. This expands on what
Clarke says --- it's not just in the USA, but other English speaking
dialects.  What have other Western language authors have to say about
this decline?

Apologies for the rant

Denis

On Fri, 03 Oct 2014 18:54:51 -0600
Clarke Echols <address@hidden> wrote:

> 
> 
> On 10/03/2014 05:37 PM, Bertrand Garrigues wrote:
> 
> > It's OK for me to use 2 spaces after a full sentence.  But I'm not
> > used to it, I've always been taught to use a single-space after a
> > full stop (French spacing ?!).  I've just noticed that a lot of
> > people on the list use 2 spaces after a full stop.  What is the
> > main reason ?  I googled on this subject, I found out that two
> > spaces are more traditional but less and less used.  Also, isn't
> > groff by default displaying a single space after a full stop ?
> >
> > Regards,
> 
> Two spaces at end of sentence is standard US usage on typewriters, and
> has been for a century or longer.
> 
> But when Microsoft came along with Word, they apparently decided to
> use a single space that's the same as inter-word spacing.  The book
> printing industry hasn't always been consistent, from what I can tell,
> but I found a magazine from 1950 where the spacing after the stop at
> the end of the sentence is a bit wider than between words, though it's
> hard to tell with spacing varied by left- and right-hand margins both
> being adjusted.
> 
> In the magazine, the end-of-sentence appears to be about 1.2 or
> perhaps 1.4 times the word spacing.  I use the groff ".ss" request to
> set my end-of-sentence spacing to 1.66 times inter-word spacing.
> 
> I find it easier to read because I read fast.  But most mass-produced
> books for the US consumer market seem to use the same spacing
> throughout, regardless of adjusted or ragged-right justification.
> 
> I suspect a lot of the reason, if there is one, is because so many
> newcomers to publishing have what I think is a deficient education
> from a decaying public education system declining literacy in the USA
> due to more and more dependence on online communication and social
> media.
> 
> Clarke
> 


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