newline begins with dash

Question

Consider this example:

\documentclass{report}
%\hyphenation{ENCODE}
\begin{document}

All data used for this study are analysed with a different release of ENCODE \textendash\ the collection of software that is used in simulation and reconstruction.

\end{document}

In the output a new line is started with a dash which seems awkward:

Using ~ to control the line break:

release of ENCODE~\textendash\ the collection

causes also some awkwardness - hyphenation of "ENCODE":

Finally I can prevent the hyphenation of "ENCODE" by uncommenting the line \hyphenation{ENCODE} to obtain the pleasing output:

Can all this ceremony be automated?

Just out of curiousity: why don't you use -- for en-dashes? — , Apr 15 '19 at 15:46
Considering this question, I think there is only one another solution: using \mbox{}, but I don't consider it as an improvement. — , Apr 15 '19 at 15:53
You can define a variant for \textendash which doesn't break before, but beside this what other automatism do you expect to work? — Ulrike Fischer, Apr 15 '19 at 16:58
@UlrikeFischer, I would like Latex to consider the output at the third attempt as the normal one. — Viesturs, Apr 15 '19 at 17:34
Sure, but how should latex know that you don't want ENCODE to hyphenate unless you tell it with \hyphenation? — Ulrike Fischer, Apr 15 '19 at 17:57
@UlrikeFischer, I see. Then never beginning a line with a dash would be an acceptable solution. — Viesturs, Apr 15 '19 at 17:59

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 15 '19 at 18:40

You can suppress hyphenation with a box and linebreaking with a penalty:

\documentclass{report}
\newcommand\zz{\mbox{}~\textendash\ }
\begin{document}

All data used for this study are analysed with a different release of ENCODE\zz
the collection of software that is used in simulation and reconstruction.

\end{document}

The line is 2pt over full in this case.

newline begins with dash

1 Answers1