At 2018-06-26T15:09:57+0100, Ralph Corderoy wrote: > Two lines become three, disturbing parity. [...] > The extra spaces are moved from the right end of the line to the left: [...] > This looks to me like nroff is alternating the added spaces between the > left and right ends of the line. Kernighan and Plauger's excellent > _Software Tools_ does this with its simple roff IIRC, and says it's the > normal method to avoid `rivers' of space being perceived. > https://amzn.to/2MrnLO5
That has been on my to-read list for something like 15 years. My procrastination has not served me well, here! (After reading what Kernighan had to say about Pascal[1], I elected to queue the original rather than _Software Tools in Pascal_.) At 2018-06-26T14:59:30+0100, Keith Marshall wrote: > On 26/06/18 14:27, G. Branden Robinson wrote: > > Can someone tells me why this happens? And, more mysteriously, why it > > only _sometimes_ happens? > > I guess its the placement of padding space, when formatting fully > justified ASCII, that's puzzling you? AIUI, to avoid rivers of padding > space, groff alternates, line by line, between insertion of such space > from left and right ends of successive lines. Insert an odd number of > lines, and you swap the left vs. right effect on subsequent lines. Fantastic! Thank you, gentlemen! Regards, Branden [1] https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/bwk-on-pascal.html
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