James Edward Gray II wrote:

> On Aug 4, 2006, at 8:20 AM, Mike Harris wrote:
>
>> It would be nice if you could assume two spaces after a end of  
>> sentence with puncuation.  Generally I think that's correct  grammar, 
>> although my grammar stinks so I could easily be wrong.  If  you have 
>> to get into parsing incorrect grammar it becomes much more  difficult.
>
>
> Actually, that's an old typographical convention that we can't seem  
> to shake.  Here's an report that talks a little about the issue:
>
>   http://webword.com/reports/period.html
>
> Here's an explanation from that report:
>
>   The only reason that two spaces were used after a period during the
>   'typewriter' age was because original typewriters had monospaced
>   fonts -- the extra space was needed for the eye to pick up on the  
> beginning
>   of a new sentence. That need is negated w/proportional space type,  
> hence
>   [it is] the typographic standard.
>
> James Edward Gray II
>
>
I stand corrected.