Ændrew RininslandApr 16, 2017

HEY KIDS! IT'S TIME FOR ANOTHER EXCITING EPISODE OF **KNOW YOUR DASHES**!!!

This is a "m-dash" — it's kinda long! You use it to separate thoughts, kinda like I did just now! It's called that, because it's as wide as the "m" character!

This here is a "n-dash": "–" you use it to separate dates like "2003–14"!

"-" is a hyphen! You use it to separate compound words that come before a noun, like "state-of-the-art waterbuffalo"!

"--" is two hyphens. IF YOU USE THIS YOU ARE A COMPLETE, UTTER FOOL.

Show threadtom hApr 16, 2017
@aendrew If it was written by an academic they might have been expecting two hyphens to be typeset as an en-dash. LaTeX does this (and three hyphens is typeset as an em-ash)
Show threadÆndrew RininslandApr 16, 2017
@tomharris Interesting... Well, it was properly typeset before, and now it is not, and I think I have my publisher's goddawful WordPress-based editing platform to thank for that. 😭
Show threadÆndrew RininslandApr 16, 2017
@tomharris Also the PDF proofs I've been sent all have double-hyphens, so I seriously worry there isn't another typesetting stage where that's corrected. I'd give my left nut to use LaTeX at this point...
Show threadtom h
@aendrew in my experience proofreaders go nuts over en-dashes, so they should get corrected if you have a proofs stage
Apr 16, 2017 at 5:09pmWeb
Show threadÆndrew RininslandApr 16, 2017
@tomharris Eh, am hoping... Have asked for clarity from my editors, though it's definitely not a LaTeX thing because each occurrence is definitely supposed to be a m- and not n-dash.