[alt.sources.d] mfold - Maaniker's fold and column making

xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) (09/12/90)

Pretty fun program.

Suggested changes:  1)  Make  the      Make the default "-w"  value  the
"-i"  default  the  null  string,      same as the current "-l" value. I
rather than a tab; then "!}mfold"      was unhappily surprised to see my
in vi will flow a paragraph  with      reversed text also right adjusted
relatively few keystrokes.(*)  2)      on          the           screen.

Suggested enhancements: 1) Respect paragraph breaks  (whitespace  lines)
in input text when doing column set text, probably best as a  line  that
is blank-within-the-column. 2) Seed   a   random  number  generator  off
something pretty universally available (the process-ID, maybe), so  that
subsequent  calls  to  left-right  justify  a  paragraph  get  different
arrangements of space inserted (allows a second chance if the first  one
has ugly rivers). 3) Do _not_ fill the last line of left-right justified
text (see right hand column above) with spaces  whether  column  set  or
not;             it             comes             out              ugly.

Like I should have said, thanks for the great, free code!

Kent, the man from xanth.
<xanthian@Zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <xanthian@well.sf.ca.us>
--
(*) We don't _have_ fmt here, but mfold is a nice replacement.

smidt@fy.chalmers.se (Peter Smidt) (09/13/90)

In article <1990Sep12.024441.21178@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes:
>Suggested changes:  1)  Make  the      Make the default "-w"  value  the
>"-i"  default  the  null  string,      same as the current "-l" value. I
>rather than a tab; then "!}mfold"      was unhappily surprised to see my
>in vi will flow a paragraph  with      reversed text also right adjusted
>relatively few keystrokes.(*)  2)      on          the           screen.

1) Hmm, have to thing about it... But "!}mfold -i" is not that many
more keystrokes. Maybe I will change the default, but I like
'-i' best the way it is now.

2) One cann't make '-w' the same as '-l', try to make '-w' very small
or give an input with very long lines and a '-sn' where n > 1 AND
the '-d' flag.

I don't understand what you mean with 'unhappily' surprised
to see the reversed script right adjusted. Let a REAL 
dyslexicer read the text. I have not meet a dyslexicer
so I am not sure if '-d' is the best way to make the
text easier to read. But if dyslexics can read text easier
upsidedown then this should be about the same?

>Suggested enhancements: 1) Respect paragraph breaks  (whitespace  lines)
>in input text when doing column set text, probably best as a  line  that
>is blank-within-the-column.

RTFM.
Look at the '-n' flag! :)

> 2) Seed   a   random  number  generator  off
>something pretty universally available (the process-ID, maybe), so  that
>subsequent  calls  to  left-right  justify  a  paragraph  get  different
>arrangements of space inserted (allows a second chance if the first  one
>has ugly rivers). 3) Do _not_ fill the last line of left-right justified
>text (see right hand column above) with spaces  whether  column  set  or
>not;             it             comes             out              ugly.

2) Yes, the rivers are a little ugly.

3) Oh, this is a bug I've not been thinking of.

Someone pointed out for me that to make the right adjustment look
less ugly, mfold should place the space arond the longest words.


Thanks for the ideas.

-- 
+=======================================+
"The whole valley is like a smorgasbord."
					-- TREMORS

smidt@fy.chalmers.se (Peter Smidt) (09/15/90)

As some have pointed out to me, mfold has some minor
misfeatures, I've fixed some of them and sent the
code to alt.sources.

Smidt

-- 
+=======================================+
"The whole valley is like a smorgasbord."
					-- TREMORS