A question for old people

[Charlie Reams]

What is it with you typewriter generation and hitting space before exclamation marks? It looks weird !

[Philip Jarvis]

Is that something I've done in the past ?

[Matt Morrison]

Is it also only old people that put two spaces after a full stop before the next sentence? That really hurts me.

[JimBentley]

Is it also only old people that put two spaces after a full stop before the next sentence? That really hurts me.

Haha, I always do that! But I never put a space before punctuation marks, that's just wrong.

[Charlie Reams]

Is it also only old people that put two spaces after a full stop before the next sentence? That really hurts me.

Haha, I always do that! But I never put a space before punctuation marks, that's just wrong.

The double spaces get suppressed by HTML anyway, so no one can tell the difference.

[David Williams]

Is it also only old people that put two spaces after a full stop before the next sentence? That really hurts me.

We older people tend to look at a thing called Google before we ask questions like that. Try it, it's really good.

[kevin manthorpe]

Is it also only old people that put two spaces after a full stop before the next sentence? That really hurts me.

"...old people that..."? Try who. That really hurts me.

Old, though, is a very subjective term.

[Charlie Reams]

Is it also only old people that put two spaces after a full stop before the next sentence? That really hurts me.

"...old people that..."? Try who. That really hurts me.

What makes you think there's anything wrong with that, err, who?

[Howard Somerset]

The first typing course I did in early 50s, or may even have been late 40s, taught "two spaces after a full stop" and I've never got out of the habit. But as Charlie says, that's irrelevant here in the forum, as multiple spaces get closed up.

As for the question in the OP, space before exclamation or question mark is something I never experienced until setting Word to French language, and then the space is inserted even if you don't type it.

One further thing which I find annoying is when people put a space after an open brackets mark and before an end brackets mark. Word processing systems can then put the open brackets mark at the end of a line, which looks odd.

[Gavin Chipper]

Old, though, is a very subjective term.

By defining it in terms of whether you put a space before an exclamation mark, it becomes objectively measurable.

[Ben Hunter]

It's because the French do it and the old people on this board were obviously around when Britain got invaded by Normans.

[George Jenkins]

It's because the French do it and the old people on this board were obviously around when Britain got invaded by Normans.

Sometimes we write like how we talk, especially when most of our lives are spent talking to people wot ain't educated.

[Kai Laddiman]

most of our lives are spent talking to people wot ain't educated.

Sometimes we write, like, how we talk

[Derek Hazell]

Is it also only old people that put two spaces after a full stop before the next sentence? That really hurts me.

No.
I am 32, and I was taught at school to put two spaces after full stops and colons, and one space after commas and semi-colons.

I agree that spaces before punctuation looks bizarre though.

It is also annoying when people say "period" in a sentence when they mean "full stop". For example "Spaces around periods are superfluous, period"

[Rosemary Roberts]

What is it with you typewriter generation and hitting space before exclamation marks? It looks weird !

I sometimes do it and I know why I do it: the font my system uses is very cramped and punctuation marks, particularly exclamation marks, just don't show up at the end of a paragraph. In many cases, certainly in forum postings, an exclamation mark is effectively a statement in itself, separate from the preceding text. So I separate it. I would prefer a hard space but I can't make that work here.

My age may well have something to do with it - my eyesight is not what it was and although I do know how to change to a different font I can't be bothered - but it is not merely force of an ancient and ill-founded habit.

[Mark Harrison]

'Period' for 'full stop' is an Americanism isn't it?

[Derek Hazell]

'Period' for 'full stop' is an Americanism isn't it?

Yep, but another one which is being increasingly used here.

[George Jenkins]

most of our lives are spent talking to people wot ain't educated.

Sometimes we write, like, how we talk

From now on, I'm going to talk proper, as illustrated in your edited version of my post, with added commas. And if I lose all my old friends because I speak posher than they do Kai, I shall blame you. (Shall or will? I never know which word to use) What does ROFL! mean. It sounds ominous, and I'm trembling in my boots.

[Chris Corby]

All this punctuation talk is upsetting for me as I have just had half my bowel removed.







That's right. I am just left with a semi-colon.