What is the ConTeXt equivalent of LaTeX “\@.”

Question

In English text, TeX follows the convention of putting extra space after a period by default, which I like. However, in the case of abbreviations it causes a problem. To suppress the extra space, one can use \  or ~, which is useful for lower case abbreviations such as “e.g.”

Unfortunately, for upper-case abbreviations, TeX archaically assumes that the period is part of the abbreviation, and uses a narrow space. You can force a wide space in LaTeX via the \@. macro:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Wrong: \\
First.  An abbreviation, e.g. PC.  Second. \\
First.  An abbreviation, e.g.\ PC\@.  Second. \\
:Right
\end{document}

In ConTeXt, this causes an error – the \@. macro is not defined.

\starttext
Wrong: \\
First.  An abbreviation, e.g. PC.  Second. \\
First.  An abbreviation, e.g.\ PC\@.  Second. \\  % Error here.
:Right
\stoptext

So, is there an equivalent of \@. for ConTeXt?

Answer 1

I'm not aware that ConTeXt has an equivalent for \@. But it's easy to build, since it just uses \spacefactor.

\define\fullstop
  {\spacefactor\plusthousand}

\starttext
  An abbreviation, e.g. PC. Second.           \\
  An abbreviation, e.g. PC\fullstop. Second.  \\
  An abbreviation, e.g.\ PC.\ Second.         \\
  An abbreviation, e.g. PC.\ Second.          \\
\stoptext