Time: Tue Oct 29 06:02:43 1996 To: From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar] Subject: text wrappings Cc: Bcc: Liberty Law Charles, It doesn't bother you when long lines start to wrap around and leave a word or two to wrap around, as in the case of this sentence, and lots of other sentences which I have to read formatted in this fashion? Maybe we are failing to agree over style, but I do not prefer this style, if it merely means that I must resort to a narrower column to fix the problem, as is the case here, and in every newspaper I have ever read since day one. The other big advantage to a narrow column is that people can speed-read a narrow column much more easily than a wide column, because each line can "fit" on their retinas, whereas long lines are too wide to fit on their retinas, particularly if one is using a 17" monitor, which I much prefer to prevent general eye strain. I recommend Sony's 17" monitors without hesitation, but there are plenty of excellent competitors now, e.g. Panasonic, Iyama, NEC, ViewSonic, and so on. Just my musings. I am really turning off to text which wraps. I have to push myself to bother, and I usually don't (bother, or push myself to). The other reason why I posted my request is to see how many people respond. I am testing an hypothesis that people prefer to read their own writing, and are using the Internet to compensate for the powerlessness they feel in their lives. The Internet is a way to "make a difference" by putting something out there -- anything -- even if the grammar, punctuation, spelling, and "style" are horrific. As a rule, I find good listeners (and good readers) to be in a small minority. /s/ Paul Mitchell At 12:03 AM 10/29/96 -0800, you wrote: >I respectfully disagree with the proposed solution to an agreed upon >problem, set forth by our valued collegue, Mr Mitchel, below. > > I think people should set their margins between 70 and 74 >characters min/max. These screens have a default capability of >carrying 80 characters per line. If everyone just sets down below >74 , we hav the ability of carrying 6 replys to the original >before it gets close to making any word wrap problem, as is the >essence of Mr Mitchell's concerns, I believe. > The best gurus on the list almost never get their best >messages responded to 6 times. > > Mr Mitchel is a gentelman and a scholar, undeniably, > > But I can find no logical reason to shove everything into >those narrow lengthy hard to read collums, as Paul advocates. Paul >is the only person I have ever come across who advocates this >particular method of making posts. > > In My Humble Oppinion (IMHO) the 35 to 40 characters which Mr >Mitchell advocates below, is counter productive to the efficient flow >of information. His basic concerns are valid, and I echo his plea to >shorten the collums of the messages posted. > > PLEASE SHORTEN THE LENGTH OF THE COLLUMNS POSTED. > > But dont do so much over kill as to make the posts burdendsome >to read and follow, as we seem to be stuck with in decifering Mr >Mitchell's otherwise extreemly valuable input. > >Charles Stewart . . . > > >On Sun, 27 Oct 1996, Paul Andrew Mitchell wrote: > >> A SPECIAL PLEA TO ALL EMAIL LISTS: >> >> Can you PLEASE set your margins >> to 35-40 characters per line MAX, >> to prevent further line wraps? >> Or, develop the voluntary habit. >> >> Newspapers have been doing this >> for years. If you want to strip >> paragraph marks, I can share >> a word processor macro which will >> do same. In the meantime, I have >> too much to read, and I am growing >> intolerant of garbage style which >> may be hiding some valuable substance. >> >> If your writing is worth the time, >> take the time to make it look >> worthwhile. If your materials are >> truly so, they will get forwarded >> many times (hopefully), only >> aggravating the line-wrap problem >> down the line, as email software >> shifts it to the right. >> >> Many thanks! >> >> /s/ Paul Mitchell >> >> ==================================================================== >> [Text is usually formatted in Courier 11 non-proportional spacing @] >> [65-characters per line; .DOCs by MS-WORD for MS-DOS, Version 5.0B.] >> Paul Andrew Mitchell, B.A., M.S., email address: pmitch@primenet.com >> ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776, Tucson, Arizona state [We win] >> We can decode all your byte streams, spaghetti code notwithstanding. >> Coming soon: "Manifesto for a Republic" by John E. Trumane ie JetMan >> ==================================================================== >> > >
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