If you’re a frontend developer but you don’t know when to use -, when to use – and when to use —, you’re not a frontend developer. You’re a monkey.

-- is not kiki

@Root eh, fuck &mdash, fuck —. I just put two hyphens into a span and set the letter spacing to some negative value until they merge into what looks like emdash

Why is front end deving always "web" front end deving? Some of us write applications too.

No clue on what this dash shit is all about.

@Demolishun where banana

I don't think any normal person knows how to properly use them.. especially after getting out of school..

When should I use those?

People still aren't clear on the proper usage of an ellipsis.

@N00bPancakes For proper copywriting, same reason why you don't use dumb quotes and dumb apostrophes. We're not in the early 20th century with typewriters anymore!

Not a frontend guy, so I'm curious. What's the difference and when should you use them?

I would literally just use the standard dash (or latex symbols if I'm doing something that actually needs special notation).

@RememberMe You should use them for asides — like this one right here — and not for silly-beans hyphenation.

@Root ah, so standard English stuff. I thought this was something more specific.

@RememberMe You use the single dash for stringing words together: JTAG-programmer. The double (ndash) is used e.g. for doing that with phrases -- where a semicolon or fullstop would be too much separation and a comma too little.
Sometimes, even the triple dash (mdash) is used for that, but that looks a bit awkward.

So back in they day IIRC I played an old MUD and actions were:

-Noob picks up a sword-

@Fast-Nop I love that you used "JTAG-programmer" of all things as the example xD
Yeah I remember learning all this, honestly I usually let my word processor handle it because at most I type out short stories or reports/etc.

@Demolishun True, I have done a lot of frontend but as you say as applications with little or no use for - except as a minus sign ;)

I am not a god web designer or text writer but I can build you a decent excel clone as a web page if you can pay ;)

I think that's not developer's job. That's copywriting and a bit of design.

And here was me thinking why the fuck is OP writing the same thing thrice.