Good point, but I think it's a little more complex than that.
replyTo my knowledge (and what I meant by "old school"), it was common to type a "--" dash on typewriters[0] because most of them lacked en- and em-dashes, which are obviously not digital documentation devices.
But yes, typesetters of old (old, old school!) had myriad glyph blocks available to them for pressing!
--
[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter#Typewriter_conventi...
On a typewriter you can write symbols overlapping, so if you write '--' it becomes '–'.
replySure... But overstriking takes more time and effort, which is why "--" was the convention.
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