[drewprops]

We are all Learned Beings of Science, but most of you are also humans, with all the frailties of that species. While using a computer, do you ever find yourself doing something that brooks logic, yet are unable to shake the habit?



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[Bryson]

I double space after a period, even though I know damn well that the computer will replace it with a single.

[kscherer]

Originally Posted by Bryson I double space after a period, even though I know damn well that the computer will replace it with a single.

Old typewriter habit from the days when all characters used the same space on the page. I see that and it drives me bonkers.

Originally Posted by drewprops … but most of you are also humans …

I identify as a jelly donut!

[turtle]

Originally Posted by Bryson I double space after a period, even though I know damn well that the computer will replace it with a single.

I still double space after periods and not likely to change anytime soon. Funny thing is, I never learned to type on a typewriter. I have always used a computer.

[Anonymous Coward]

I double space after a period and I did learn to type on a typewriter (electric in high school and mostly manual in college). As far as I can remember, it is more of a style manual thing (do any writers still use those?). Newspapers and other typeset media preferred the single space because it allowed more print on the page. There were competing style manuals (I probably copies of the Chicago Manual of Style and one commonly used one by Kate Turabian somewhere and maybe others I can't remember right now that supported either the one space or two space standard.

[drewprops]

The light on my external drive stays on after the disk is ejected, so I turn on Disk utility to unmount the volume manually, to make the light go off before I unplug the cable.

Sometimes, when I'm downloading or doing a repetitious procedure I'll pick a place to rest my finger/mouse, and stick with that as part of my rhythm.

There are more.

Maybe they're not superstitious, as much as they are OCD patterns


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[kscherer]

Originally Posted by turtle I still double space after periods and not likely to change anytime soon. Funny thing is, I never learned to type on a typewriter. I have always used a computer.

Early computers were just typewrites with a screen.

[turtle]

That is how they were taught at least.

I remember using a typing teacher app that the graphics were a typewriter.

[PB PM]

While we had a computer when I was young it was mostly my Dad’s work tool. I learned to type on a late model computerized typewriter at school. You typed everything, hit enter and it printed that line out. That was kind of nice, you could at least correct errors before printing them.

[kscherer]

I learned to type on an Apple ][+, which was just a typewriter with a screen. And, yes, I know it was more than "just a typewriter", but at that point computers were borrowing type-setting standards for text display. In order to differentiate proper spacing between words and sentences, we were still using the old "double space" after a period. That standard was still leftover from printing-press type spacing, and is no longer relevant in modern computing, as each character has its own, unique spacing. It's a tired, old standard that has no place in modern, computer-based type-setting. I taught myself to single-space on computers 20 years ago.