Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I had to read a lot of Heidegger, who was interesting on a macro level but interminably boring on the micro level needed to see the macro. His readability was helped by the use of very visible double dashes-- sort of an extended version of the double-comma appositive structure in a sentence-- so the structure of his writing was easier to follow.

I liked that much more visual que enough that I adopted it myself for a while. Over time, I recognized that when I found myself reaching for the technique it meant that I probably needed to restructure things into more discrete chunks that build sequentially. When possible, conveying complex information benefits from as simple a structure as the information can manage.



> Over time, I recognized that when I found myself reaching for the technique

I had a similar experience with parentheses.


They’re called “em dashes”, and they look like this: —

You can find a Real, Genuine Em Dash™ at https://emda.sh, or insert one using ‘C-k - M’ in Vim or ‘Compose - - -’ on Linux — not sure about other platforms.


Thanks— I didn't realize there was an actual character for them. Though IIRC MSWord would sometimes auto format them into that single extended dash appearance.


Yes, iPhones automatically merge two dashes together as well.


Alt hyphen on macOS, hold on most all mobile platforms.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: