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From: eijkhout@s41.csrd.uiuc.edu (Victor Eijkhout)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Sloppy line-breaking: I didn't want it THAT sloppy!
Keywords: line-breaking
Message-ID: <1990Nov8.204307.1265@csrd.uiuc.edu>
Date: 8 Nov 90 20:43:07 GMT
References: <944@edg1.UUCP>
Sender: news@csrd.uiuc.edu (news)
Organization: UIUC Center for Supercomputing Research and Development
Lines: 27

jsa@edg1.UUCP (J. Stephen Adamczyk) writes:

>When one writes paragraphs that include many verbatim names, line-breaking
>becomes difficult, and it's understandable that LaTeX/TeX would complain
 [example deleted]
>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?

Yes, yes, yes. As infinity is finite in TeX, one very bad line is
better than a number of somewhat-less-but-still-very bad lines.
Sloppypar sets parameters so that everything will be accepted.
I used to set \spaceskip=.33em plus .66em in that sort of paragraphs.
It makes the spaces very stretchable. Experiment around lowering the .66
to see what the optimal result is.

>(I'm using TeX C Version 3.0 and LaTeX Version 2.09 on a Sun 3/50 running
>SunOS 3.5.)
Ah! TeX 3.0 was made for you! Try \emergencystretch=1em, or a larger
value if this doesn't work. This parameter was introduced in version
3.0, and it brings the just-out-of-reach solutions into reach.

Good luck trying.

V.