[Users] word wrapping

[Albert ARIBAUD]

Bonjour wwp,

Le Mon, 27 Oct 2014 00:01:25 +0100, wwp <subscript at free.fr> a écrit :

> Hello Eyolf,
> 
> 
> On Sun, 26 Oct 2014 18:08:15 +0100 Eyolf Østrem <eyolf at oestrem.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, 26 Oct 2014 17:27:36 +0100 wwp <subscript at free.fr> wrote:
> > 
> > > That sounds really subjective and not standard to me. Never seen this
> > > in either French or English readings. Is there any norm, language rule
> > > or standard behind this?
> > 
> > Long story short: early printing guides (17th to early 20th c.) prescribe a
> > 1 em space between sentences and 1/3-1/2 em between words. (French printers
> > have always used the same space in both cases, though, hence "French spacing").
> > 
> > With the advent of typewriters, double- or triple-space became a way to mimic
> > printed text. Gradually during the 20th c., the practice was abandoned in
> > printed text, but has remained in the type-writing traditions of some
> > countries. 
> > 
> > Virtually none of the leading style-guides today use double-spacing, though,
> > and as was mentioned, it is highly country-specific. I have an inkling that
> > it's partly a US/Europe divide, but I'm not sure.
> 
> Thanks a lot for this enlightenment. I'm glad that in French such
> spacing difference didn't+doesn't exist ;-).

This is somewhat true, and then somewhat not: while we French indeed
never use double spaces (that I know of, anyway), we do have rules about
putting a space before "double" (two-stroke) punctuation and no space
before "simple" (one-stroke) other. And that's for typed text, of
course; for true typography, we do have complex spacing rules with
different widths and sorts of spaces.
 
> Regards,

Amicalement,
-- 
Albert.