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Q&A Should we render double hyphen as an em dash?

For the reasons you already alluded to, rendering -- as em-dash by default is dangerous, see discussions on a Similarly Engineered site. This is particularly true in question titles since they don'...

posted 1y ago by AdminBee‭  ·  edited 1y ago by AdminBee‭

Answer
#3: Post edited by user avatar AdminBee‭ · 2023-07-03T15:23:10Z (over 1 year ago)
Highlight the problem that in particular questions by new users would be affected
  • For the reasons you already alluded to, rendering `--` as em-dash by default is dangerous, see [discussions on a Similarly Engineered site](https://unix.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4955/difference-between-foo-and-foo-foo-and-foo-and-as-well). This is particularly true in question titles since they don't support formatting options.
  • I think that at least in communities where verbatim reproduction can be paramount for correctly stating questions and answers, automatic conversions should be avoided as much as possible. This is true all the more since an inclined user who wants "typographically" fancy appearance can still explicitly enter e.g. an em-dash using the workardound you already mentioned, or by unicode code-point, i.e. <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>0151</kbd>.
  • For the reasons you already alluded to, rendering `--` as em-dash by default is dangerous, see [discussions on a Similarly Engineered site](https://unix.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4955/difference-between-foo-and-foo-foo-and-foo-and-as-well). This is particularly true in question titles since they don't support formatting options.
  • I think that at least in communities where verbatim reproduction can be paramount for correctly stating questions and answers, automatic conversions should be avoided as much as possible. This is true all the more since
  • * a new user will often not know how to protect `--` using code tags, making questions prone to misinterpretation (considering that a majority of questions likely come from "first-time" visitors)
  • * an inclined user who wants "typographically" fancy appearance can still explicitly enter e.g. an em-dash using the workardound you already mentioned, or by unicode code-point, i.e. <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>0151</kbd>
#2: Post edited by user avatar AdminBee‭ · 2023-07-03T11:35:41Z (over 1 year ago)
OP already mentiond one workaround
  • For the reasons you already alluded to, rendering `--` as em-dash by default is dangerous, see [discussions on a Similarly Engineered site](https://unix.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4955/difference-between-foo-and-foo-foo-and-foo-and-as-well). This is particularly true in question titles since they don't support formatting options.
  • I think that at least in communities where verbatim reproduction can be paramount for correctly stating questions and answers, automatic conversions should be avoided as much as possible. This is true all the more since an inclined user who wants "typographically" fancy appearance can still explicitly enter e.g. an em-dash using unicode code-point, i.e. <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>0151</kbd>.
  • For the reasons you already alluded to, rendering `--` as em-dash by default is dangerous, see [discussions on a Similarly Engineered site](https://unix.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4955/difference-between-foo-and-foo-foo-and-foo-and-as-well). This is particularly true in question titles since they don't support formatting options.
  • I think that at least in communities where verbatim reproduction can be paramount for correctly stating questions and answers, automatic conversions should be avoided as much as possible. This is true all the more since an inclined user who wants "typographically" fancy appearance can still explicitly enter e.g. an em-dash using the workardound you already mentioned, or by unicode code-point, i.e. <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>0151</kbd>.
#1: Initial revision by user avatar AdminBee‭ · 2023-07-03T11:34:16Z (over 1 year ago)
For the reasons you already alluded to, rendering `--` as em-dash by default is dangerous, see [discussions on a Similarly Engineered site](https://unix.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4955/difference-between-foo-and-foo-foo-and-foo-and-as-well). This is particularly true in question titles since they don't support formatting options.

I think that at least in communities where verbatim reproduction can be paramount for correctly stating questions and answers, automatic conversions should be avoided as much as possible. This is true all the more since an inclined user who wants "typographically" fancy appearance can still explicitly enter e.g. an em-dash using unicode code-point, i.e. <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>0151</kbd>.