Spaces after full stops. Anyone as old as me?

I lectured in English Language for some time, so i’ve spen a lot of time thinking about usage. I’ve never been taught how to type, and I’ve very rarely used a typewriter. I put one space after a full stop when I type on here.

I think it’s perfectly acceptable to begin sentences with And or But in informal writing. These things are a matter of appropriate style rather than rigid rules. Formal writing is different.

I learned to type in the early seventies and was taught to use two spaces after a full stop and one after a comma, etc, with double line spacing between paragraphs.

We touch typed to 'William Tell' on manual typewriters which youngsters would laugh at these days.

As long as people continue to communicate with me, I really don't give a fig but I do remember the rigorous teaching of these things.

I am sometimes saddened that I have become deskilled - the computer lays out and centres documents, the automatic car means no gear changing, and the washing machine tells me how long and at what temperature to wash things.

Will we become even less competent as machines take over?

Earlier this morning, I was thinking about the days when we taught in school to place one finger on the line between words - or after a comma - and two fingers on the line after a full stop.

In typing classes (late 60s), I was also taught to do two spaces after a full stop or colon and one space after a comma or semi-colon.

I was taught 2 spaces after a full stop, question mark and colon and one space after a comma and semi colon. Also 2 line spaces between paragraphs if typed in the block style.

One space after a comma, two after a full stop. About the only thing I can recall from a CLAIT course taken a long time ago!

I never trained, but I do know that when posting on FB or in messages on iPhone, if I put two spaces it automatically inserts a full stop!

Did typing in the seventies. Was taught 2 spaces after a full stop, one after a comma, two after a question mark.

I was taught 2 spaces after a full stop and one after a comma, at secretarial school in the late 60s. Still do it even in texting. I suppose some people would say that language has to evolve and other that it's dumbing down.

Yes, definitely.

I was taught to put two spaces after a full stop, but no mention was made of colons or semi colons. Indenting the beginning of a new paragraph was done by tabulation (remember that? Setting the tabs at the right places?) but now it's much easier with modern 'machinery'. My iPad and iPhone both put a full stop in automatically if I move up two spaces after a word, and also do an automatic capital letter at the beginning of the new sentence.

I also remember having to count the letters and spaces in a heading and doing the maths to get it dead centre.

Happy days!

Funny how some of these things vary between languages and even regions.
In French (my sometimes rusty mother tongue) I have to remind myself that they expect a space BEFORE question marks and exclamation marks. After 40+ years of using mostly English I tend to forget.
In emails from USA or Canada l've noticed that they favour a semicolon at the end of the first line of a letter, such as Dear Sir (where I would use a comma).
In Arabic, brackets (parentheses) are placed around numbers in a text, with no apparent reason to us non-Arabs. For example: My son was born in (1977).
I agree that once acquired some of these habits can be mighty hard to change.

I was always taught 2 spaces after a full stop and 1 space after a comma, and definitely no starting a sentence with 'and'. I still do this when messaging and texting, it drives me up the wall but it just has to be done correctly.

Does anybody remember counting the number of letters in a heading, in order to make sure that it was centred on the page? You had to know the length of the normal line of type, the length of the heading, and then do the maths required to get it in the middle of the document.

I was taught 2 spaces after a full stop.

grandMattie I think that's really debatable. Not sure anyone has ever sorted that one out.

Sparkle, me too. But what I agree very much with JRM is that organisations are single. It drives me mad hearing people say “the govt WERE....”. Grrrrr

........or has he progressed from the quill?!!

I'd forgotten about indenting, always double space for paragraphs and always do 2 spaces after a full stop, even in texts, I can't not do it.

I also learned to type in the 60s and was taught 2 spaces after a full stop, one space after a comma, I still do it that way. I can't remember the rule for colons. I often find when typing online that double spaces are automatically reduced to one space. It just looks wrong to me. A big part of our typing lessons was the correct setting out of documents - line spacing paragraphing, layout etc. Even today my children often ask me to edit or draft letters for them because I just make them look better. I think it's sad that so many of these traditions are being lost to speed and technology.

I was a secretary and so learnt shorthand and typing in the early 70s. We were taught one space after comma, two spaces after a full stop. I find the grammar and spelling nowadays appalling, especially on social media or emails. And, whilst I know some people have difficulty with both, I also think many people are just too lazy to bother. I know plenty well educated, literate, people who send emails that are difficult to follow because they just haven't bothered to use any punctuation.

I learned to type at college in the evenings, and the rule was two spaces after a full stop, and one after a comma.

I was taught to go in 5 spaces at the beginning of a paragraph. Then I went to work for the army and this was considered old fashioned. I also remember doing something like this at the bottom of a document oo00oo

I was taught 2 spaces after full stop. I still do. I am 68.