Re: inter-word spacing (initials)

[Peter Rolf <indiego@gmx.net>]

Alan Bowen schrieb:
> My original query has generated some interesting sidelines but no  
> solution, at least none that I can see. So, with all due apologies, I  
> shall presume on your patience by restating my query.
> 
> In (English) typography the spacing after a period within a sentence  
> is less that that after a period at the end of a sentence. Since the  
> days of Plain TeX, one achieved the proper spacing after an intra- 
> sentence period by entering “.\<space>”. My problem is that this no  
> longer seems to work with recent versions of ConTeXt/MKII: “.\<space>”  
> does not seem to have any effect at all.
>
are you sure of that?

a citation from "The TeXbook", chapter 12: Glue

"Another way to get TeX to put out a normal space is to type '\ ' 
(control space); e.g., 'Mr.\ Drofnats' would be almost the same as 
'Mr.~Drofnats', exept that a line might end after the 'Mr.'. "

also: you don't need a control space here

from the exercise 12.5:

"TeX doesn't consider a period or question mark or exclamation point to 
be the end of a sentence if the preceding character is an uppercase 
letter, since TeX assumes that such uppercase letters are most likely 
somebody's initials'. "


what you want is just a smaller skip. so how about a *local* use of 
something like

\def\ {\thinspace}%

donno if this is possible (side effects) in your environment. maybe one 
of the gurus can give an answer. anyhow, interesting stuff :)


best wishes, peter

> So, how are we now to get the proper spacing after an intra-sentence  
> period? Are there some language/spacing commands that need to be  
> invoked in the prelims now?
> 
> Sample text:
> \starttext
> 
> A. E. Samuels and other scholars.  The community of time{-}keepers.
> 
> A.\ E.\ Samuels and other scholars. The community of time{-}keepers.
> 
> \stoptext
> 
> Alan
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