In the case of the computer programmers, they were most certainly correct. Is the author really so quick to condemn while not realizing that programming is almost always done with monospaced fonts?
Anyway, I never have to worry about this these days anyway. Worrying about trivialities like this is what LaTeX is for ;)
Indeed, this really only seems to be an issue for the (admittedly large majority) of computer users who:
- write documents in a WYSIWYG editor
- don't publish those documents on the Web, or another setting where the reader's software (as opposed to the editor) makes decisions about how to display the text
Basically, this sounds like one more reason not to use Word (and similar), or share documents in .doc/.odt/etc. format [1]. It shouldn't even affect HTML email.
Worrying about trivialities like this is what LaTeX is for ;)
You still need to pay attention to this using LaTeX -- LaTeX will (usually) insert a wider-than-normal space after a period, which isn't always correct (e.g., "Mrs.", "etc.", and so forth). You can avoid this using "~".
Anyway, I never have to worry about this these days anyway. Worrying about trivialities like this is what LaTeX is for ;)