-> MM>How far back are you checking your standards?  For 200 years, a
-> MM>period has required two spaces.
->
-> Ah, but with the advent of proportional spaced fonts, that standard
-> was changed.  Think of your computer as a typewriter or a
-> typesetter.  If the latter (why use it otherwise), then the standard
-> is ONE space.
 
And technology now provides for a vastly larger number of characters
than before, too.  Might as well spell R's backwards, cross your D's,
and invent wholly new breeds of misbegotten animals, like a raised
period (the upper part of the colon), backward comma (if quotes are
forward and backwards, why not commas, too?), double comma (one on top
of the other), and what about triple-U's where double-U's don't do the
job well enough?
 
Speaking of spacing requirements, I was transcribing a book published
in 1844 (Francis Glass's DE VITA WASHINGTONII) into WP 5.1 format,
trying my utmost to preserve pagination, and all manner of spacing
requirements, &c., and came to the disturbing realization that the New
York typesetters of the time were actually inserting one-half space
BEFORE every comma and semicolon...  No wonder I was having so much
trouble!  (Of course, if I'd had a font-editor, I could have adjusted
the leading-on-left variable for the commas/semicolons...)
 
Thus, your assertion that the standard is (or should be) exactly one
space comes into question...  How do you know it isn't one and one half
spaces, or two thirds of a space, &c.?  Or, since you insist that
proportionate fonts are the only way to go (not the case if you are
drafting complaints for purposes of litigation), should not the driving
software just set the HMI (horizontal motion index) with the output of
every character?
--- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 
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