this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2024
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Tip: βββ, en dash, is used for ranges like 2β3βnot β-β, hyphen
How on earth did English typography get so weird with mdash, ndash, dash, hyphen, etcetera while most of the readers have no clue about the the differences. IMHO, just use dash.
Can you explain me how the different lengths of dash add to the understanding of the text, when I usually don't even see the difference on my mobile phone screen?
They have different meanings where the lengths help at a glance such as using en dash for a compound adjective or em dash for a longer pause for a clause. This aides in reading even if you only pick up on it subconsciously.
How was this handled in the age of typewriters?
Using multiple consecutive hyphens. Some schools used -- for em-dash, others
(still used today in latex), and then -- for en-dash.
Where on a standard keyboard is this
Just google the character and copy paste it as needed. /s
How ridiculous. I'll just use the one on the keyboard.
I had some doubts people would get the joke. I should go add an /s
To answer your question it depends on the keyboard but i donβt actually care, the difference between - and β is just semantics to me.
Okay yea sorry, the sarcasm was whooshed on me.
What is a βstandardβ keyboard? No such thing as every region has different keyboards & variants inside those regions. I can use AltGr on my desktop keyboard & holding the hyphen key on mobile allows easy selection of em dash & en dash.
I work for a multi-national IT department. I just happen to have a UK, FR and DE laptop on the workbench. I don't see the em-dash on any of them. AltGr + hyphen does nothing on Windows (Google search says Mac supports this). None of these laptops have a numpad, but Google search says maybe CTRL+MINUS(numpad) may give an em-dash. Can't test though.
In any case, it seems the world has left behind em-dash, so correcting users on a public forum seems pointless.
They were invented long agoβlong before keyboards, but the terminally-online folks here forgot that pen & paper also happened before & folks writing English used all sorts of symbols, such as ΓΎΝ€ for βtheβ. But I guess if it doesnβt fit on ANSI keyboards invented for typewriters 100 years ago with 100-year-ago limitation, these symbols cannot possible exist in contemporary times lol.
Edit your XKB config π
I like that you snuck an em dash in there π
whoever invented all those dashes... I just wanna talk
I was literally about to write that, beat me to it.
Edit: write
Write*
But itβs okay; I protect