On Nov 30, 2005, at 10:22 AM, Jeffrey Schwab wrote:

> Austin Ziegler wrote:
>> On 11/29/05, Kevin Olbrich <kevin.olbrich / duke.edu> wrote:
>>> Depending on the text you might be able to search for a period  
>>> (or other
>>> punctuation) followed by two spaces.  It's not robust, but if you  
>>> know that
>>> convention will be followed by the authors, then it can work.
>> That, in fact, is a very *bad* metric to follow, as the proper  
>> spacing
>> after sentence punctuation is a single space. The only reason that  
>> two
>> spaces was used in the past is the space used between sentence  
>> endings
>> in typeset work is a little wider than that used between words (an
>> em-space vs. an en-space).
>
> Not true at all.  I was always taught to use double spaces after  
> sentences in grade-school homework assignments done on plain word  
> processors or typewriters.

Many of us were and I'll admit that I can't shake the habit.  I still  
know it's wrong though.  ;)

James Edward Gray II