this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
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Something similar happened to me a while back. I was copying some code from a Mac to a remote Linux host. For some reason the Mac was using a thing called an “en dash”
–which is slightly longer than a regular hyphen-and was really fucking frustrating to figure out.I don't know why I'm here commenting about this, but I love type, so:
Hyphen (-): the short one, used for hyphenated words. fire-eaters. Close-up.
en-dash (–): slightly longer, traditionally the length of a lowercase"n" in the typeface. Used between for things like a timeframe. 10–11:30, August–October
em-dash (—): the longest of the three, and the length of a lowercase "m". Used as a punctuation mark to denote a side comment or to abruptly cut off a sentence. "It's a great punctuation mark—in fact I overuse it—but it's still useful." "Hey where are you going with that giant—"
I didn't bother to double check the definitions, so there might be more specific rules, but these are my rules of thumb.
Thank you. I have learned something new today!