[texhax] Explicit inter-sentence space?

[Hartmut Henkel]

On Mon, 12 May 2008, Tim McKenzie wrote:

> I've been having trouble trying to figure out how to get LaTeX to give
> me an inter-sentence space where I want it. I've spent some time with
> TeX FAQs and Google, and I've briefly searched the texhax archives,
> too. The closest I can find is the standard advice about how to
> restore an inter-sentence space when a sentence ends with a capital
> letter (i.e., use \@.). This isn't my problem, though.
>
> My problem is when a sentence ends inside a nested quotation, as, for
> example, in The Brothers Karamazov:
>
> `But when you come ... ``Publish it through all the town," she would
> say, ``I'm not afraid of you."' I looked at the young lady, ...
>
> Notice that there are two end-quotation marks between "of you." and "I
> looked": first a ", and then a '. While LaTeX seems to use
> inter-sentence space correctly when a sentence ends inside a single
> quotation, it doesn't seem to give me an inter-sentence space here,
> where two quotations have ended.

it's a question of the \sfcode, see TeXbook p. 76. You can play with it
like:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}
\begin{document}

french:
\sfcode`\'3000 \sfcode`\"3000

town." I \par town."' I

nonfrench:
\sfcode`\'1000 \sfcode`\"1000

town." I\par town."' I

transparent:
\sfcode`\'0 \sfcode`\"0 % cf. TeXbook p. 76

town." I\par town."' I
\end{document}

i guess what you want is to make both " and ' transparent to the space
factor of the point, which they are not by default (not even the " as
you see in the example). These default settings you find in latex.ltx.

Regards, Hartmut