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Do em-dashes and en-dashes work on all computers with standard web fonts? I see people use two normal dashes (--) a lot and wonder if they just don't know how to add them.
1st world problem
I don't remember when I last saw two dashes for an m-dash and know only one website that doesn't display m-dash in comments, it's not even in English.
GODDAMN THIS SHIT!..... sorry for the rant.... luckily this works nowdays but.... don't try it in an old email client like some versions of Outlook...
OK... RANT STARTS HERE>.. sorry, I have PTSD from print designers "going web" in the late 90's who INSISTED on m-dashes no matrer what version of MS-TURD they were cut-pasted into whatever version of QUARK DISTRESS, and then cut-pasted into whatever CMS they had just paid $$$$ for to some "pre-press consulting company" that always rendered them wrong and we had to try to convince them that the ultimate sacrilige of using "plain ascii" dashes instead of the typographic nirvana requirement of the holy and invincible M-dashes....
sorry for the rant, just a bit of PTSD from all-night coding sessions to make designer weenies placated about this SINGLE LITTLE CHARACTER.... the uglies code resulted soo often.,... if - this browser then this — code else if that browser then that &## code madness
Understanding the two:
The em dash is the mark of punctuation most of us think of when we hear the term "dash" in regard to a sentence. Dashes can be used in pairs like parentheses—that is, to enclose a word, or a phrase, or a clause—or they can be used alone to detach one end of a sentence from the main body. Dashes are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex or in one that has a number of commas within it.
The en dash is slightly longer than the hyphen but not as long as the em dash. (It is, in fact, the width of a typesetter's letter "N," whereas the em dash is the width of the letter "M"—thus their names.) The en dash means, quite simply, "through." We use it most commonly to indicate inclusive dates and numbers: July 9–August 17; pp. 37–59.
– en dash
— em dash
they do not work on Netscape 4.x browsers