[Python-Dev] textwrap.py

[Tim Peters]

>> (Just, the point isn't to make the period stand out, it's
>> to make the start of the next sentence stand out):

[Just]
> Sure, but there are already *two* things to make that clear: end
> the previous sentence with a period, start the next with a capital
> letter. An extra space is overkill. But I guess your point may be
> that caps usually stand out less in fixed-width fonts, which may be
> true.

They do seem to stand out less, but that isn't really my point.  My point is
that I've been living mostly with fixed-width fonts for more than 30 years,
and even in 1970 I noticed it was easier to read prose in such fonts when
sentences were separated by two spaces.  And that's before my eyes started
growing old -- it's gotten more noticeable over the years.  I don't know
exactly why that is, but I can't notice a thing hundreds of times and then
be convinced by abstract arguments that I've been hallucinating for decades.

> ...
> Don't know about canadians, but I wouldn't listen to the french :
> they write spaces *before* punctuation !

God knows I'd rather align myself with the Dutch, but in the grand tradition
of European wars, punctuation makes strange bedfellows <wink>.