From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Juri Linkov Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Man-width on terminals Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2007 02:54:14 +0200 Organization: JURTA Message-ID: <87ve8cyz46.fsf@jurta.org> References: <87ejf17e85.fsf@jurta.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1194572629 6685 80.91.229.12 (9 Nov 2007 01:43:49 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2007 01:43:49 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: bob@rattlesnake.com Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Nov 09 02:43:50 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1IqIuS-0005bn-Ir for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 09 Nov 2007 02:43:48 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1IqIuH-0007dV-1Y for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:43:37 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1IqIu4-0007bP-Cl for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:43:25 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1IqIu0-0007X2-7j for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:43:23 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1IqItz-0007WY-TE for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:43:19 -0500 Original-Received: from relay01.kiev.sovam.com ([62.64.120.200]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1IqItz-0006jF-A6 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:43:19 -0500 Original-Received: from [83.170.232.243] (helo=smtp.svitonline.com) by relay01.kiev.sovam.com with esmtp (Exim 4.67) (envelope-from ) id 1IqItX-0000sE-0d; Fri, 09 Nov 2007 03:42:51 +0200 In-Reply-To: (Robert J. Chassell's message of "Thu, 8 Nov 2007 03:04:04 +0000 (UTC)") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.0.50 (gnu/linux) X-Scanner-Signature: c2436a487120708c9e0f2b31fdd4cc45 X-DrWeb-checked: yes X-SpamTest-Envelope-From: juri@jurta.org X-SpamTest-Group-ID: 00000000 X-SpamTest-Header: Not Detected X-SpamTest-Info: Profiles 1751 [Nov 08 2007] X-SpamTest-Info: helo_type=3 X-SpamTest-Info: {HEADERS: header Content-Type found without required header Content-Transfer-Encoding} X-SpamTest-Method: none X-SpamTest-Rate: 25 X-SpamTest-Status: Not detected X-SpamTest-Status-Extended: not_detected X-SpamTest-Version: SMTP-Filter Version 3.0.0 [0255], KAS30/Release X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: FreeBSD 4.8-5.1 (or MacOS X 10.2-10.3) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:82837 Archived-At: > With more inter-line whitespace, you can have longer lines. The > maximum reasonable length for the contents of a line with lots of > inter-line whitespace turned out to be about 70 characters. Computer > terminals have the whitespace needed, so they are seldom narrow. And, > for the same reason, terminals seldom had more than 80 characters. > (That is also why cards on which FORTRAN was written had only 80 > characters.) > > Of course, if you wish to make your manual page width be less than 70 > characters, that is fine. I am against long lines that need more > inter-line whitespace than many writers provide. As an xterm can have arbitrary width, users are free to resize it to the comfortable width. And I think Man should fill the text to a width preferred by the user (there is a special option `Man-width'). -- Juri Linkov http://www.jurta.org/emacs/