[texhax] Units in technical writing

[Philip TAYLOR]

Johnny wrote:

> Philip TAYLOR<P.Taylor at rhul.ac.uk>  writes:

>> Johnny wrote:

>>> | The numerical value always precedes the unit, and a space is always used
>>> | to separate the unit from the number.
>>
>> Ah, but the space of the line, a thin space, a fixed width space, or ... ?!
>> ** Phil.
>
> I have never bothered about fonts much as I havent seen a concise
> standard on it and find that by adhering to any consistent font within
> the paper does very well. The problem with fonts, I presume, is that
> many are proprietary (believe it or not, but most of the world seems to
> prefer proprietary application rather than free and open
> solutions!). Anyhow, a font would be difficult to adhere to when
> handwriting...

Well, it's not really about fonts, just about spacing.
When typesetting in TeX (or traditionally, but not necessarily
true of other modern typesetting systems), there exists the
concept of "the space of the line", which will be uniform
and consistent intra-line but may vary inter-line.  In
some situations, the space of the line is deemed less
appropriate, and for such situations a fixed width space
(which will be consistent inter-line) can be adopted.
And then there are the numerous variants on a thin-space,
each of which is generally some sub-multiple of the em-size
of the current font.  Hope this helps, too !

** Phil.