Re: This Lispofobics really gone too far

Kirk Job Sluder wrote: 
Ulrich Hobelmann <u.hobelmann@xxxxxx> writes:


Ok, but (I was in the USA the last 9 months and there) I saw lots of
cases where we were supposed to turn in double-spaced stuff and I
wonder why.


To my knowledge, it's a relic of the old publishing method where the 
[...]

Wow, thanks for all the info on history :)

The problem is that just about everybody uses letter or A4 paper.  With
10-12 point text, letter and A4 is too wide by a huge margin.  There are
three ways around this: huge margins (shortens the width of lines),
increase the whitespace between lines (helps to keep the eye on the
line), or multi-column text.  Multi-column text is out of the question
because it can be a PITA even with a good typesetting program.  This
leaves two alternatives that end up with a lot of whitespace on the
page.

Actually, some papers I've seen (two-column) looked really cool.
E.g. http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/%7Egreg/cyclone/papers/cyclone-regions.pdf

I think the software people should up their software, if there are any big problems.

--
No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. -- Abraham Lincoln
.