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Re: How to display format=flowed (and other topics)?



* Derek Martin <invalid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> [2005-10-13 11:44]:
> On Thu, Oct 13, 2005 at 07:56:48AM +0200, Thomas Roessler wrote:
> > On 2005-10-12 14:42:55 -0400, Derek Martin wrote:
> > > The problem, Thomas, is that you are making a completely
> > > arbitrary decision as to what is the most readable, and forcing
> > > it on the users.
> >
> > The decision is roughly as arbitrary as the decision to have columns
> > in newspapers,
>
> The difference is that newspapers are not configurable.

True :-)

> They are designed to maximize the ease of laying out multiple stories
> with numerous advertisments, and the columnar layout with short lines is
> the most efficient way to do that.

Sorry for being picky, but if you have a look at a newspaper, you'll see
that single stories are also split into multiple coloumns if they are long
enough.  This is done exclusively for readability.  Also, as I said
before, you'll hardly find _any_ book or article or whatever with line
lengths considerably greater than 80 characters.  For large paper formats,
multiple coloumns will be used in almost all cases, not only for
newspapers.

Holger

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