Question about punctuation

[Never]

Rumple Foreskin:
"Well, if you really must know, it's similar to the reason many people in the US refer to a "couch" as a "Davenport."

Dahvenpoots? Eh onle he-ah bout Dahvenpoots up'un Bah-Hobah way.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Rumple Foreskin:
"Well, if you really must know, it's similar to the reason many people in the US refer to a "couch" as a "Davenport."

Dahvenpoots? Eh onle he-ah bout Dahvenpoots up'un Bah-Hobah way.

More like Davenports out Iowa way where the locals reportedly built a lot of the fool things.

RF

 

[SlickTony]

Now if you're one of those folks who can't type on a word processor without hitting a "hard carriage" return at the end of each sentence,

Ohmigod there still actually exist people like that? I hated editing their documents--removing all those hard carriage returns was a major PITA.

Back in the day when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was taking typing, I was taught two spaces, and used two spaces for decades after that. However, the MSWord program at my last job was set up for one, the one I have at home is too, and I don't miss the two spaces a bit.

 

[Wantonica]

Poop, I'll swear on my life that even in Honors English and in the Catholic school (yep, me in short-skirted uniforms), I never was taught two spaces. Huh... grunt... wow.

Just me,
Wantonica

 

[Madame Manga]

Until I got a word processor I was a shitty typist. I filled my papers with XXXXXs and crooked lines. I don't even recall what I was taught about spacing, and yes, I did take a typing class in high school. IBM Selectric machine, state of the art--it even had a ribbon with a whiteout strip along the bottom, and believe me, I needed it. Never broke 30 wpm WITH errors until I started to use email, and now I rip along at such a pace that a co-worker once paid me a compliment--"Wow, I thought only programmers typed that fast." ;-) Since I never even had good typewriter habits, I had no trouble at all switching to a computer.

MM

 

[Guest]

I never was taught two spaces. Huh... grunt... wow.
Just me,

Watonica, you're not the only one. I was taught only one space at my English Grammar school. For any that don't know, in Britain the 'Grammar' in Grammar school doesn't mean it was merely a school that taught correct use of the English language. Grammar schools are secondary schools that use a selection process to obtain their students. It's a similar process that used to be a test called the 11 plus. It was an all girls school, and we were taught how to behave as ladies, as well as taught to a high academic standard. Not quite sure what went wrong with me.

My husband went to a 'normal' secondary school, and he was taught to use two spaces. Our schools were both under the same borough education directorate, so I don't think the policies were carried out county by county. Having said that, my school did 'opt out' of the state system of funding.

 

[Guest]

Tatelou: I went to Catholic schools and also called my first one a grammar school. In high school (all girls) we were also taught how to be 'ladies', e.g., how to get in an out of cars gracefully, how to cross our legs (only when absolutely necessary), even how to pluck our eyebrows, etc. Girls who smoked were called sluts.

I am grateful for the actual grammar learned and even for the other lessons. I'm a slut though,

Perdita

 

[Guest]

I am grateful for the actual grammar learned and even for the other lessons. I'm a slut though,

I'm also grateful for the education I received. I too am a slut.
I have a theory that all the sluts in the world went to Catholic, Grammar or all girls schools, or even more likely, any combination of the three.

Maybe it's because of the lack of male contact in our teenage years; we make up for it when we hit womanhood. I do think that such schools give us a great amount of confidence and self belief. I know when I left my school, at the age of eighteen, I was ready to tackle to the world, and take on any poor man that happened to stumble my way.

 

[MathGirl]

Parochial uniforms

Originally posted by Wantonica Catholic school (yep, me in short-skirted uniforms),

Dear Wan,
Me, too. Pleated skirt, black and white saddle oxfords, and (shudder) knee sox. Warped me for life.
MG

 

[Guest]

I think saddle oxfords were chosen for the difficulty of keeping them clean and polished: black, white and the orangey soles. We received detention points for not having spiffy shoes and pressed pleats. Also weren't allowed to wear half-slips or pullover sweaters. All for good grammar (left most of my dogma in the locker when I graduated and went to a satanic public U.)

Perdita

 

[snooper]

As an old,old man ...

... the school I went to taught me how to write a good round hand. The thought of a pupil using a typewriter was unknown.

I did, however, learn where the one space two space argument came from. When pulling little bits of brass from a bucket of type to compose a line, an en-space was used between words and an em-space was used between sentences. To justify the line thins were then inserted, first a sentence ends, then between words, then between letters. If too many thins were needed resulting in:
A l i n e a b i t l i k e t h i s
then all the thins were removed and the em-spaces repalced by en-spaces with the next word included in the line. If that was still too long then the en-spaces were reduced to thins until the line fitted. That was a "tight line" which has passed into common speech.

Of course when you had all the brass bits in the frame you locked it and pressed a flong, then threw molten lead at it to make the actual block.


Ah, the good old days.


PS Word97 still has en-space and em-space in the Insert Symbol Special Characters!

Here they are (copied from a Word document): Em-space En-space .

 

[Guest]

Really Experienced

Snooper, I knew something of this when reading about typesetting once, but am glad to know these details. Love the word 'flong'.

I recall when the early word-processors came into office use how silly the first fonts looked when justified; they simply spaced out the words so that the sentences looked laughable.

I have the em and en on Word too in Win2000, and enjoy using them.

cheers, Perdita

 

[MathGirl]

Oh, dear.

Good grief! I thought typewriters were just curiosities. You actually used them? How terribly, terribly primitive.
In sympathy,
MG

 

[Guest]

Re: Oh, dear.

I thought typewriters were just curiosities. You actually used them? How terribly, terribly primitive.

Kid, you have no idea. I learned on a manual, i.e., not-electric.

Perdita

p.s. in h.s. I flunked typing, never got to more than 18 wpm w/o errors; but then the teacher nun was senile, simply disappeared one day.

 

[Quasimodem]

My High School’s "Commercial" stream taught typing. (The Arts stream was a joke.)

I was on the job for five years before the company sprang for electric typewriters.

In those days, double spacing at the end of a sentence was mandatory.

With early word processors, like typewriters, you had to remember to strike the space bar twice, at the end of a sentence.

Since I got my first copy of WordPerfect (5.1 for DOS) I learned about two settings.

The first was, to set for one or two spaces - no matter how many times you hit the spacebar, after sentence-ending punctuation. (. ! & ?)

I can also set it for capitalization after punctuation. (This can be a bitch after . . . Know what I mean?)

 

[MathGirl]

Originally posted by Quasimodem With early word processors, like typewriters, you had to remember to strike the space bar twice, at the end of a sentence.

Dear Quaz,
I still do that. Guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I'll probably end up with thumbular cancer or something.
MG