On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 09:18:00AM +0100, Sven Joachim wrote: > This is actually correct, because if it were moved to the first line it > would change the semantics of the text: the sentence would end with the > "bbbbbbbbb.", while it does not in the original. That's because by > default a dot only ends a sentence if followed by a newline or _two_ > spaces, see the user option sentence-end-double-space:
This is extremely counter-intuitive, but thanks for the explanation. Using two spaces for sentence termination was originally a workaround for mechanical typewriters, because they could not properly adjust the spacing between words and punctuation. I do not think that GNU Emacs should be promoting the useless continuation of this outdated practice. Moreover, it seems to me like GNU Emacs is in error with its application of this rule. The double space after a terminating full stop was to fake the spacing that would normally have been present before the start of the next sentence. There is no reason why this would have been required when the full stop sits at the end of a line. Why GNU Emacs would enforce that a full stop be followed by two spaces at the end of a line is totally beyond me. > If you set sentence-end-double-space to nil, then the "bbbbbbbbb." is > moved to the first line, since the sentence ends after it in the > original text. Thanks, this worked. -- Noah Slater, http://tumbolia.org/nslater -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
