No space between number and units - Grrrrrr - RF Cafe Forums

 Post subject: No space between number and units - Grrrrrr.....

Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2012 10:28 am 

Greetings:

In the last year, there has been a trend to forego the space between numbers and units in product datasheets and in press releases. Not only does that practice violate a centuries-old standard, but it creates an opportunity for misinterpretation. I actually asked a couple company communications people why they are doing that and they say it is to prevent units and numbers from being separated as a line wraps on the screen. I mentioned that the non-breaking space symbol (HTML   or  ), aka hard space or fixed space, can be inserted in place of a standard space symbol (ASCII 20H). All word processors since about 1980 have had the ability to insert a non-breaking space. So why not do that instead of eliminating the space, I asked? 

Answer: Their editors did not want to have to go to the trouble of using an extra keystroke to invoke the non-breaking space. I kid you not. Others are now adopting the [non]standard because some are doing it. This is another case of [non]professional laziness as far as I am concerned. 

When I publish press releases for those companies, I always insert the non-breaking spaces myself when possible. Any technical paper or book in the contrariwise publishing community will certainly include a space. I think what they are doing to destroy the standard is atrocious. I suppose they could make the "green" argument that eliminating space saves a few vendekowatts of power by reducing the number of bits that have to be transmitted over the Internet; in fact, now that I've proposed it, don't be surprised to see that being used in stock market quarterly reports to investors.

_________________
- Kirt Blattenberger 
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster

 Post subject: Re: No space between number and units - Grrrrrr.....

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 12:34 pm 

All standards are being abandonened these days it seems. Social. Political. Moral. Science. Medicine. All ideas and all people's opinions must be deemed equivalent. If I say 2+2=5, then who are you to criticize me? Bigot. That doesn't apply, though, if your standard says you can punch me in the mouth because standards only exist when they are defined by me.