Re: Formatting Posts With VI

roodwriter_at_core.com
Date: 09/17/04 

Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 06:26:18 -0400

Floyd L. Davidson wrote:

>
>>Frankly, for a writer, using linefeeds (carriage returns) at the end
>>of the lines for formatting instead of a proper word wrap can really
>>be inconvenient. I save my work in longlines to facilitate greping or
>>if I ever have to use it in a word processor (almost never). And both
>>Vi and Emacs have that problem.
>
> A very interesting statement, primarily because that is the
> first, and the only, valid reason I've ever seen for using
> long lines as opposed to proper formatting.  The problem is that
> it is a poor solution, which breaks more than it fixes.
>

Actually, now that I think about it, I have an even better reason to
prefer longlines format: It's the way my editor wants them.

No editor would want to have to manually remove the extra carriage
returns. They'd probably wonder what's wrong with me. Although I write
in the traditional LaTeX style of block paragraphs with blank lines
between because I find it faster and more natural, I use a macro to
convert the text to tabbed paragraph style when I'm done. Someone also
came up with some lisp code, which I needed to alter slightly, that
will do the same thing, although I still use my macro because I add a
header and footer to my stuff.

I probably should have brought this up with the first post, since
really it's probably more important for the average writer who may or
may not be greping. (I still grep daily, sometimes several times a
day, despite years of therapy.)

I haven't had the problem you mention with newsgroups, since my KNode
newsgroup reader is set to pop up Emacs when I want to reply.

--Rod
Author of "Linux for Non-Geeks--Clear-eyed Answers for Practical Consumers"
and "Boring Stories from Uncle Rod." Both are available at
http://www.rodwriterpublishing.com/index.html.

To reply take the extra "o" out of the name.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Formatting Posts With VI
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  • Re: Formatting Posts With VI
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