Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!edg1!jsa
From: jsa@edg1.UUCP (J. Stephen Adamczyk)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Sloppy line-breaking: I didn't want it THAT sloppy!
Keywords: line-breaking
Message-ID: <944@edg1.UUCP>
Date: 8 Nov 90 14:23:06 GMT
Organization: Edison Design Group Inc., Upper Montclair, NJ
Lines: 33

When one writes paragraphs that include many verbatim names, line-breaking
becomes difficult, and it's understandable that LaTeX/TeX would complain
about that.  What's surprising (to me, anyway) is that TeX, which is
so fastidious about line-breaking, becomes so sloppy about it if one uses 
\begin{sloppypar}/\end{sloppypar}.  Here's an example:

\begin{sloppypar} 
For \verb|DATA| statement scanning, \verb|data_constant| is called to
scan an optional repeat count followed by a signed constant, and
\verb|change_constant_to_required_type| is called to convert the
constant to the type of the variable being initialized.
\end{sloppypar}

This is formatted as

   For DATA statement scanning, data_constant is called to scan an optional
repeat                             count                           followed
by  a signed constant,  and change_constant_to_required_type  is called  to
convert the constant to the type of the variable being initialized.

... with, not surprisingly, a warning about an underfull \hbox.  What
seems to have been done here is to create one really awful line and
several good lines, instead of several fair lines.

Is that the way it's supposed to be?  Is sloppypar the wrong thing to use?
Is there a better way?

(I'm using TeX C Version 3.0 and LaTeX Version 2.09 on a Sun 3/50 running
SunOS 3.5.)

Any advice would be appreciated, by email or by posting to this newsgroup.

Steve Adamczyk (jsa@edg.com or uunet!edg1!jsa; 201-744-2620)