In message <wXDGf.17410$i2.314@newsfe6-gui.ntli.net>, Gazza
<news@garyjones.co.uk.invalid> writes

(Why) is it more correct to use an En dash, than an ASCII hyphen ("-")?

--
Andy Mabbett

Say "NO!" to compulsory ID Cards: <http://www.no2id.net/>

In message <V64IeeZt086DFwmF@pigsonthewing.org.uk>, Andy Mabbett
<usenet200309@pigsonthewing.org.uk> writes
....or when?
--
Andy Mabbett

Say "NO!" to compulsory ID Cards: <http://www.no2id.net/>

On Thu, 9 Feb 2006, Andy Mabbett wrote:

Because that's the typographic convention in the English language.
I think you can find it even in the OED.
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/dashes.html

--
All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Denmark.
And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Jeg er dansker!"

Andy Mabbett mumbled the following on 09/02/2006 23:51:
My own notes:
<http://garyjones.co.uk/development/hyphens.php>
<http://garyjones.co.uk/development/typography.php>

(which has notes taken verbatim, and amalgamated, from
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash> and
<http://www.alistapart.com/articles/emen/>)

In short, it's the correct character to use. You'd use a question mark
at the end of a sentence, a comma where you'd take a breath[1], an
apostrophe for missing letters[2], so why not use the correct symbol
when specifying a numerical range?

The "-" on the keyboard is correctly a hyphen-minus - an attempt to be
both a hyphen (which has a correct symbol displayed with ‐) and a
minus (#8722; or &minus. Another of it's misuses is as an Em dash,
primarily used when you have a change of thought. You may have noticed
that if you use the hyphen-minus in MS Word, once you type the next word
and press space, the hyphen suddenly increases it's length - this is the
Autocorrect feature, though it may be possible to disable it. Should you
wish to use an Em dash without relying on this feature, use Ctrl+- (from
the numeric keypad).

The same goes for curly quotes/apostrophe's in web pages - &rsquo; /
’ (right single quote) looks better than typewriter-based straight
single quote.

If you insist that your spelling and grammar is correct, you should also
value your correct use of typographical characters. It may not be
obvious to those who don't know any better, but a big mistake to those
who do.

[1] & [2] Yes, I know these aren't comprehensive examples.
--
Gazza
Mobile Number Network Checker - http://mnnc.net/
Leovanna Leonbergers - http://leovanna.co.uk/
Scarlet Town - http://scarlettown.co.uk/

JRS: In article <V64IeeZt086DFwmF@pigsonthewing.org.uk>, dated Thu, 9
Feb 2006 23:15:57 remote, seen in news:uk.net.web.authoring, Andy
Mabbett <usenet200309@pigsonthewing.org.uk> posted :
Because in ISO 8601:2000 hyphen is used for something else, but dash is
not mentioned? I suppose it's the same in :2004, but it might not be.

Time ranges are shown in :2000 by using a solidus (/) and possibly a P.

Applicable ISO standards should take priority over typographical
convention.

Pragmatically, \u002D = #45 is probably commonest where a hyphen should
be used.

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. ?@merlyn.demon.co.uk Turnpike v4.00 MIME. ©
Web <URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/> - w. FAQish topics, links, acronyms
PAS EXE etc : <URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/programs/> - see 00index.htm
Dates - miscdate.htm moredate.htm js-dates.htm pas-time.htm critdate.htm etc.

Gazza wrote:
Note that, in the course of a discussion of proper punctuation usage,
you failed to use proper punctuation; "its" (as a possessive) does not
have an apostrophe in it.

--
Dan

dan@tobias.name mumbled the following on 19/02/2006 00:02:
I could claim a typo, but in this case it wasn't Purely me not
proofreading carefully enough before posting. Re-reading my post again,
I can see at least one more mistake of the same kind.

--
Gazza
Mobile Number Network Checker - http://mnnc.net/
Leovanna Leonbergers - http://leovanna.co.uk/
Scarlet Town - http://scarlettown.co.uk/