7 ms·
The first sentence already contains an emdash ahah
by h1fra 2mo ago
The first sentence already contains an emdash ahah
- zahrc 2mo agoI speak as I think and I type and as I speak, so I do uses em-dashes. It’s a shame that it’s now a brand of low quality AI-generated content.
- pelagicAustral 2mo agoHow do you even do an em dash? I don't even thing I've got that on my keyboard
- sunnybeetroot 2mo agoHold down hyphen key
- f055 2mo ago"option shift -" like so —, or if you want an en-dash, just "option -" like –. The funny bit is that I like em-dashes too as they indicate a pause or an interruption in thinking that just looks better than parenthesis, however I sometimes like to use en-dashes as well, which can be a pain since some fonts, especially monospaced ones, render exactly the same, for example in this HN edit box: - – —
- pelagicAustral 2mo ago— Got it. I can em dash now! — — —
- latexr 2mo ago> "option shift -" like so —, or if you want an en-dash, just "option -" like –. That’s true in the US layout, but on other layouts those can be reversed. > for example in this HN edit box: - – — They look the same in the HN edit box because the font is monospaced, but once posted they do look different.
- alvah 2mo agoI was downvoted a few weeks ago for making this exact point. Humans can and do use em-dashes occasionally, but given that you have to go digging for the key combination, you're not using it every 3rd sentence like every AI model does.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- latexr 2mo ago> but given that you have to go digging for the key combination Except you don’t. If you’re on an Apple OS, by default doing -- (two hyphens) auto-substitutes for an em-dash. Also, the key combination isn’t even hard. Depending on the layout you’re using, it’s either ⌥- or ⌥⇧-. My fingers press that (and the appropriate combination for apostrophes too) without me having to think. Those ⌥ and ⇧ symbols (and many more) I have mapped to text snippets. We’re using computers, these things are trivial to do and customise, you don’t have to “hunt” for anything.
- alvah 2mo agoExcept you do, if you are an average user, i.e. not self-selected into the HN bubble.
- FinnKuhn 2mo agoFor Windows it's Win+Shift+"-". I suspect it is more common to see in papers as you can type it with just "--" in LaTeX.
- FinnKuhn 2mo agoCorrection: It is actually "---" in LaTeX and "--" only creates an en-dash.
- fragmede 2mo agoI'm typing from a phone and it's just a long press on the - button to get — to appear. How about if you're not foreign, how do you get æ to appear. It seems quite special to get € or ¥ to apper if all you've got is $ but why should your inability too do something hold back everyone else?
- psychoslave 2mo agoI’m a bépoète™ — it’s that simple!
- veqz 2mo agoI, at least, literally made my own keyboard layout some years ago, to be able to type all the characters I want. Got versions both for Linux and Windows (haven't had a need to use Mac yet). It's basically an extension of US International which can type every letter in all the Latin based alphabets and most of the common punctuations, including hyphens, hyphen-minuses, en-dashes, and em-dashed. Never found room for all the Greek letters, though.
- inigyou 2mo agoPhone keyboards usually make it easy. On desktop you can try compose and three hyphens.
- Findecanor 2mo agoInstall/Enable support for the Compose key. Map it to Menu or some other unused key. Then press Compose and three hyphens in sequence. I have used emdash, typed this way for many years before LLMs. I had got the habit from mimicking my journalist father's writing style. The Compose key is useful for many other symbols «×»÷₁²♥⋄•
- benterix 2mo ago> I speak as I think and I type and as I speak, so I do uses em-dashes. I'm sorry to break it to you but the sentence you just wrote doesn't contain any —s.
- fenomas 2mo agoI always find it strange how many HN commenters appear to have unconsciously added "exclusively" or "without exception" to the text of the comment they're replying to.
- TwoFerMaggie 2mo agoNot the use case for em-dashes. en-dash maybe, but they also didn't say they use en-dashes instead of hyphens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash#Em_dash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash#Em_dash
- matsemann 2mo agoYeah, yeah, people say that all the time. But it's not the dash itself, it's how it's so stiff and obviously not written by a human. "No screen glow, no keyboard, no chat UI." and other bullshit. Why should I waste time reading this link, when the "author" themselves didn't write and, probably not even read it themselves.