Applying to be an Apple Genuis

[sinclair_tm]

good luck, hope you succed where i could not. i can't even remember the number of times i've applied for a job at the local apple stores, as well as at a local mom-pop type mac store. but the thing that bugged me the most was that every time i went into the mom-pop shop to ask a question, i would get 'dear in the headlight' looks. why, because i knew more then they did! and the apple stores are just too busy for me to get questions answered, so i come here.

[CaptainQuark]

Originally Posted by Lt Major Burns

if you mean putting two spaces after a period…

That's what I was talking about.

Originally Posted by Lt Major Burns

…then i will always do this, as it's grammatically correct…

Originally Posted by bbloke

I've always been taught to do this (use two spaces after the end of a sentence), and it tends to bug me when documents don't have this, actually.

AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!!! It has absolutely nothing to do with grammar! ('Scuse me over-reacting, here but as a designer of books, this is an issue close to my heart.)

It's a throwback to the days of knackered old typewriters. The full stop, being the smallest character (and one of the most frequently used) used to get worn down. Also, in the days before photocopiers, computers and word-processors, the only way you could get a copy of a letter was to use several sheets of paper interleaved with carbon paper, which meant that on the second and third copies, full stops could disappear. So it was common practice among secretaries and typists to use a double space to reinforce the end of a sentence.

In the olden days of hot metal type, it was common practice among the lazier compositors to bung in an extra 'en' or two after a full stop to justify a piece of text, instead of distributing them evenly along the line.

As I mentioned in my previous post, double spaces affect the 'greyness' of a page of text. If you can find a novel, ideally, or any other book with a large area of text without any pictures, look at the page and squint a bit so that the page looks blurred. You can then appreciate 'greyness'. You will notice that there are unsightly holes in the uniformity of the text – called 'bullet holes' – and even worse, if you get several double spaces near each other on successive lines, you get that most hateful of design no-no's – 'rivers'.

JUST DON'T DO IT! It's sick and it's wrong!

Even that nasty piece of work Macromedia Dreamweaver disallows double spaces. And have you tried entering a double space on this forum? It won't allow it. Why? Because it's sick and it's wrong!

I blame the British education system!