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Scott Crom
May 17th, 2007, 04:29 PM
Hi Dan,

OK--just remember that you asked for it!

I learned to type back in the first half of the previous century;
yes, I was in high school in the 1940s. We learned on those huge
old heavy old clunky old manual typewriters.

We learned not only where the letters are, but also the various
conventions then in force. In this case, a hyphen is made with a
single dash (no space on either side), as in "self-conscious."

An M dash--to set off side thoughts a little more strongly than
parenthesis would indicate--is made with two dashes, again no
spaces before or after. But I'm not sure I can think up a good
example.

In those days, however, it was also thought appropriate to follow
both a period and a semi-colon with two spaces. And in
typewritten material that looked OK, or so it seemed to us.

Some decades later, when I was moving to the computer keyboard, I
was told by several people who know more about this sort of thing
than I do, that two spaces following a period or semi-colon are
hopelessly old-fashioned. So with considerably mental effort, I
switched to the practice of using only one.

OK. As mentioned I do all my offline reading and writing using a
good old DOS text editor, with absolutely no fancy effects of
colors, fonts, etc. By now that editor has almost too many macros
to count--in fact the last time I added one or two, the compiler
threw up its hands and came close to resigning.

I run incoming mail through that macro-equipped text editor and
it replaces " - " with "--" and the like.

So by now I really have no idea what the original announcement of
a new word or round looks like when it's originally posted, since
whatever it was has been changed to fit my own idiosyncrasies (or
is that "idiocies"?).

I had no idea that my typography would affect the thread-matching
features at tapcis.com! I do apologize for making unnecessary
work for anybody.

Now, after all this, can you please tell me what particular
format for dashes, etc., would least discombobulate tapcis.com
and your own work (very much appreciated! on behalf of Dixonary?

Scott

Daniel B. Widdis
May 17th, 2007, 04:43 PM
On 5/17/07, Scott Crom wrote:
> I run incoming mail through that macro-equipped text editor and
> it replaces " - " with "--" and the like.

Ah! Mystery solved! The subject got changed before you even read it!
You just typed what you saw. I had a suspicion it was the em dash!
Especially when it happened twice.

> Now, after all this, can you please tell me what particular
> format for dashes, etc., would least discombobulate tapcis.com
> and your own work (very much appreciated! on behalf of Dixonary?

The software at tapcis.com simply matches subject lines (after
removing up to three incidences of either RE:, FW:, or [Dixonary],
case insensitive) from the subject line of the message starting the
thread. So it simply needs the subject line to match what you
received, character for character.

That means when dealers (such as me) incorrectly use
[space][hyphen][space] you should repeat the same thing. I suppose
the same could be said for [colon][space][space] (or just one space)
or any other subject line conventions.

Internet standards identify the subject line as
[newline]Subject:[space] and then some text. Is it possible to exempt
lines following that pattern from your macros?

--
Dan Widdis

Chuck Emery
May 17th, 2007, 07:26 PM
Scott -

I'm still using two spaces. So perhaps we need a thread. Spaces, one or
two?

- Chuck

Wayne Scott, M.D.
May 18th, 2007, 01:23 AM
Maybe not on anything Dodi or Wayne wrote, but I would guess that there are
a lot of folks out there who don't know better and don't care a fig.

Fussy in Finland

If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die I want to go where they
went.
--Will Rogers


> [Original Message]
> From: Dodi Schultz <SCHULTZ (AT) compuserve (DOT) com>
> To: <Dixonary (AT) googlegroups (DOT) com>
> Date: 5/17/2007 9:52:10 PM
> Subject: [Dixonary] OT: typography
>
>
>
> There were NEVER two spaces after semicolons.
>
> Periods, yes. Colons, yes. But not semis.
>
> --Dodi

Keno77773@aol.com
May 18th, 2007, 11:24 AM
In a message dated 5/17/2007 9:51:22 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
SCHULTZ (AT) compuserve (DOT) com writes:

There are NEWBIES here? Who let THEM in?



ROFL I snuck in !!!
Roberta



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Keno77773@aol.com
May 18th, 2007, 11:25 AM
In a message dated 5/17/2007 11:30:30 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
waynescottmd (AT) earthlink (DOT) net writes:

<<Maybe not on anything Dodi or Wayne wrote, but I would guess that there are
a lot of folks out there who don't know better and don't care a fig.>>
That be me ! Clueless in Calif.








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Keno77773@aol.com
May 18th, 2007, 12:15 PM
In a message dated 5/18/2007 9:51:24 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
schultz (AT) compuserve (DOT) com writes:

<<I SUSPECTED you were underage>>
Dodi, I'm not underage :<) I'm pushing 70. I'm just under educated. <formal
education> that is.

Roberta

Roberta





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