In this article the author discusses the use of \@ to put correct spacings after full stops that are not at the end of a sentence e.g. Mr. i.e. etc.
The macro suggested
\newcommand\etc{etc\@ifnextchar.{}{.\@}}
is not quite perfect since in the case (\etc more text) it produces (etc.more text).
I have seen a lot of authors who have made their own versions of the \etc macro, mostly variations on etc.\.
What macros for \etc, \ie, \etal, \eg produce the nicest results in the most situations?
Is this something too personal in taste to be solved in general?