User:Omegatron/Dash syntax
There have been several proposals for wikicode conventions that allow rendering "real" dashes — like this. Currently, an editor either needs to enter the dash as an HTML entity: —
, or has to enter the Unicode character —
directly by finding it in the character insert box below the edit window. Both are slow and tedious, and despite the introduction of UTF-8, lots of people are still typing single hyphens - or double hyphens -- to represent dashes. Other types of dashes are even worse; very few people go through the trouble of entering a minus sign, for instance.
This is my proposal for a syntax to cover all the major situations where dashes are desired. If you see a conflict or problem with it, please add to the talk page. The idea behind this proposal is to put a little context parsing into the software, so a dash between two numbers is rendered as an en, but between two characters is left as a hyphen. (Remember, you can always use <nowiki>
tags to escape behavior like this or force something else, but, like the other codes used on the site, a good syntax will work as desired in most cases, saving time and effort.)
Syntax
[edit]Hyphen -
[edit]- text-text
En dash –
[edit]- 1912-1934
- text_-_text
Spaced en dash –
[edit]- text__-__text
Em dash —
[edit]- text--text
Spaced em dash —
[edit]- text_--_text
Minus sign −
[edit]- _-123
- 123-_
- 123_-_123
Not covered
[edit]- Minus signs between text variables: a + b − c
- Full dates, linked dates
Minus signs inside superscripts for chemical symbols: SO42−
Examples
[edit]Compound words are sometimes combined into one, but sometimes remain hyphenated: foo-bar.
- Compound words are sometimes combined into one, but sometimes hyphenated: foo-bar.
From 1923-1945, Mr. Foo frequently patronized bars.
- From 1923–1945, Mr. Foo frequently patronized bars.
Foos are timid creatures--one was found hiding underneath a bar for several years -- and should not be approached carelessly.
- Foos are timid creatures—one was found hiding underneath a bar for several years — and should not be approached carelessly.
Foo's theorem derives a result of -3 from the equation 2 + 5 - 10, barring arithmetic mistakes
- Foo's theorem derives a result of −3 from the equation 2 + 5 − 10, barring arithmetic mistakes
Other conventions
[edit](See this talk page for lots of discussion and variants. The following is a summary of the major proposals.)
TEX and SmartyPants convention
[edit]- hyphen = “
-
” (one hyphen: “Ex-wife
”) - en dash = “
--
” (two hyphens: “1995--2004
”) - em dash = “
---
” (three hyphens: “em dashes---those beautiful things
”) - spaced en dash = “
--
” (two hyphens surrounded by spaces: “November 1 -- December 26
”) - spaced em dash = “
---
” (three hyphens surrounded by spaces: “em dashes --- those beautiful things
”)
- hyphen = “
-
” (one hyphen with no spaces: “Ex-wife
”) - en dash = “
-
” (one hyphen surrounded by spaces: “1995 - 2004
”) - em dash = “
--
” (two hyphens: “em dashes--those beautiful things
”) - spaced en dash = ??? (can this be typeset at all using the Textile notation?)
- spaced em dash = “
--
” (two hyphens surrounded by spaces: “em dashes -- those beautiful things
”)
- hyphen = “
-
” (one hyphen with no spaces: “Ex-wife
”) - en dash = “
---
” (three hyphens: “1995---2004
”) - em dash = “
--
” (two hyphens: “em dashes--those beautiful things
”) - spaced en dash = “
---
”? (three hyphens surrounded by spaces: “November 1 --- December 26
”) - spaced em dash = “
--
”? (two hyphens surrounded by spaces: “em dashes -- those beautiful things
”)