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I noticed today, while experimenting with TeX, a missing space between consecutive @'s :

@ @ @ @
\bye

The dvi output, after interpretation by the TeX program (on the command line on linux) shows : @ @@ @ (there is a missing space between the second and the third @). I observed the same output with pdfTeX but not with latex. Why is that so?

Villetaneuse
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    I see four equally spaced @ characters after compiling with pdfTeX –  Apr 16 '17 at 12:00
  • Checked with tex and dvi2tty: Four equally spaced @ characters! –  Apr 16 '17 at 12:18
  • Add the tracing lines that I show in my answer, and then post the log you get from tex, adding to your question in a code section. – David Carlisle Apr 16 '17 at 12:25
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    Ok, problem solved, I was sometimes keeping the right alt-key pushed while pressing space, which resulted on an unknown charcacter... Sorry and thank you for your help. – Villetaneuse Apr 16 '17 at 12:25
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the issue was due to erroneous input (unbreakable space and not space) – egreg Apr 16 '17 at 13:20

1 Answers1

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enter image description here

processed with (pdf)tex the log shows four @ with three equal word spaces

..\hbox(6.94444+0.0)x469.75499, glue set 408.6438fil
...\hbox(0.0+0.0)x20.0
...\tenrm @
...\glue 3.33333 plus 1.66666 minus 1.11111
...\tenrm @
...\glue 3.33333 plus 1.66666 minus 1.11111
...\tenrm @
...\glue 3.33333 plus 1.66666 minus 1.11111
...\tenrm @
...\penalty 10000
...\glue(\parfillskip) 0.0 plus 1.0fil

Tracing enabled via:

\tracingoutput=1
\showboxbreadth=10
@ @ @ @
\bye
David Carlisle
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