Austin Ziegler wrote:
> > 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.
>
> Then, quite honestly, you were taught wrong. I was taught to use
> double spaces with a typewriter or when using fixed-pitch fonts
> (although that was later, since most computers and printers didn't
> have reliable kerning routines until I was out of university).
> Ultimately, the use of double spaces after a period is wrong *even
> with fixed-pitch fonts*, but it was done to be clearer since the width
> of the em-space and an en-space on a typewriter with a Courier-like
> font is exactly the same. The two spaces *simulates* an em-space in a
> typeset piece of work. (And that is *fact*, not opinion.)

What rot.  How can anything like that be a fact?  You're regurgitating
the opinion of a style manual.

Gavin