Hard space
Encyclopedia
In typesetting
and text editor
s, the term hard space has several meanings, all related to a special way of representing the space
between characters.
Typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text by means of types.Typesetting requires the prior process of designing a font and storing it in some manner...
and text editor
Text editor
A text editor is a type of program used for editing plain text files.Text editors are often provided with operating systems or software development packages, and can be used to change configuration files and programming language source code....
s, the term hard space has several meanings, all related to a special way of representing the space
Space (punctuation)
In writing, a space is a blank area devoid of content, serving to separate words, letters, numbers, and punctuation. Conventions for interword and intersentence spaces vary among languages, and in some cases the spacing rules are quite complex....
between characters.
- The most commonly used meaning is the same as non-breaking spaceNon-breaking spaceIn computer-based text processing and digital typesetting, a non-breaking space or no-break space is a variant of the space character that prevents an automatic line break at its position. In certain formats , it also prevents the “collapsing” of multiple consecutive whitespace characters into a...
, a special space character used by a word processorWord processorA word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
that forbids an automatic line breaking (line wrap) at its position.
- In earlier days of text editorText editorA text editor is a type of program used for editing plain text files.Text editors are often provided with operating systems or software development packages, and can be used to change configuration files and programming language source code....
s that worked with text modeText modeText mode is a kind of computer display mode in which the content of the screen is internally represented in terms of characters rather than individual pixels. Typically, the screen consists of a uniform rectangular grid of character cells, each of which contains one of the characters of a...
CRTCathode ray tubeThe cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
displaysDisplay deviceA display device is an output device for presentation of information in visual or tactile form...
, when a paragraph had to be justifiedJustification (typesetting)In typesetting, justification is the typographic alignment setting of text or images within a column or "measure" to align along both the left and right margin...
, this was achieved by means of inserting extra soft spaces at whitespaceWhitespace (computer science)In computer science, whitespace is any single character or series of characters that represents horizontal or vertical space in typography. When rendered, a whitespace character does not correspond to a visual mark, but typically does occupy an area on a page...
s. The soft spaces were so called because they could be "compressed" away during further editing. By contrast, ordinary spaces were called hard or incompressible spaces.
- Also, in some older text editors, the hard spaces were both non-expandable—i.e., no soft spaces could be added to them—and non-breaking ones.
- In many term programs and game parsers, a hard space was a special kind of field delimiter, against which a filename could be examined or listed, or a semantic thought or consideration could be interpreted.
- In the CommodoreCommodore 128The Commodore 128 home/personal computer was the last 8-bit machine commercially released by Commodore Business Machines...
directory system, a hard space usually terminated the spelling of a filename, and was replaced with a quotation mark when listed to the user.