> On Fri, 4 Jan 2002, Stan Barr wrote:
>
> > It's one of the syntax elements of standard written English, as taught
> > in Britain anyway for many, many years. One space after a comma, two after
> > a period, exclamation or question mark, indent the first character of a
> > paragraph, etc...
>
> These are all _typesetting_ rules, and not so much grammar rules.
>
You are, of course, quite right - That's what I *really* meant. ;-)
I was taught all that in school (back in the '50s) as it was expected
that we would all be using typewriters in the brave new future, plus I
used to help edit the school magazine. I still use these conventions
automatically (mostly...I tend not to indent paras on here).
Talking to younger relatives today they gave me blank looks, so I guess
they no longer teach any text layout in school - just when word processors
could actually make such learning useful to them!
--
Cheers,
Stan Barr stanb_at_dial.pipex.com
The future was never like this!
Received on Fri Jan 04 2002 - 15:23:20 GMT