Comment by Ralfp
2 months ago
People usually don't type embdash, just use regular dash (minus sign) they have already on the keyboard. ChatGPT uses emdash instead.
2 months ago
People usually don't type embdash, just use regular dash (minus sign) they have already on the keyboard. ChatGPT uses emdash instead.
Ahem.
https://www.gally.net/miscellaneous/hn-em-dash-user-leaderbo...
As #9 on the leaderboard I feel like I need to defend myself.
I’m guessing this list is defined by Mac users who all got taught em dash somewhere similar or for similar reasons. It is only easy to use on a Mac. But I wonder what is the 2nd common influence of users using it?
On Linux I just type (in sequence):
compose - -
and it makes an em dash, it takes a quarter of a second longer to produce this.
I don't know why the compose key isn't used more often.
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This is a misconception which keeps getting repeated. It's easy to use an em-dash on any modern Linux desktop as well (and in a lot of other places).
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Android — keyboard – good for endash to !
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It's just em dash is the correct symbol, and typing it on Mac is simple: `cmd + -`
You can tell if I'm using mac or not for specific comment by the presence of em dash.
Or, you know — iOS. That’s huge marketshare for a keyboard that automatically converts -- to —
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In emacs, Ctr-x 8 <return> is how i type it. Pretty easy.
I’m disappointed that I’m on it — I’ll have to try harder.
You'd need a time machine, it only tracks prior to the release of ChatGPT.
Microsoft Word at least used to autocorrect two dashes to a single em dash, so I have plenty of old Word documents kicking around with em dashes.
I recently learned to use Option + Shift + `-` (dash) on macOS to type it and use it since then because somebody smarter than me told me that this is the correct one to use (please correct them if you know better :D).
Same on GNU/Linux(Debian), except Option is called AltGr.
I've been typing "—" since middle school 25 years ago. It's trivial on a mac and always has been (at least since OSX, not sure about classic). Some folks are just too narrow-minded to give others the benefit of the doubt.
iDevices (and maybe MacOS too?) correct various dashes to the Unicode equivalents. Double dash seems to get converted to em-dash automatically.