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Re: ChangeLog conventions: fill-column
From: |
Robert J. Chassell |
Subject: |
Re: ChangeLog conventions: fill-column |
Date: |
Tue, 23 May 2006 21:31:17 +0000 (UTC) |
... such a `fill-column' was used only in mails or news to allow
easy replies under 80 columns.
> I don't see the point here, any clue ?
Nobody ? If there's no rational, why not put this limit to 79
in add-log.el ?
There is at least one rationale besides the 500 year old one having to
do with the abilities or inabilities of your and my eyes -- even with
lots of interline spacing, a long line makes it hard to discover the
beginning of the next line.
Besides that rationale, the problem that effects me is most frequently
-- more frequently than I like -- is that some one quotes an item in a
message to my friend Joe and he quotes it in a message to me. Quotes
are supposed to reflect what the original writer said and not be
corrupted by filling or anything like that (although they often are).
I hate to say it, but you really do not want a fill-column of more
than 72. 70 is the standard based on regular computer monitors.
Printed books usually display less inter-line spacing and shorter
lines.
(The convention is `twice the length of an alphabet plus major
punctuation'. For English, that produces a line 60 or 61 characters
wide, depending on whether you consider a hyphen to be `major
punctuation'. When you have more interline white space, as computer
displays do, then you can have more characters on a line.)
--
Robert J. Chassell
address@hidden GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc
Re: ChangeLog conventions: fill-column, Reiner Steib, 2006/05/16
Re: ChangeLog conventions: fill-column, Miles Bader, 2006/05/16