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From: rusty@belch.Berkeley.EDU (rusty wright)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Sloppy line-breaking: I didn't want it THAT sloppy!
Message-ID: <RUSTY.90Nov9132524@belch.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 9 Nov 90 21:25:24 GMT
References: <944@edg1.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator)
Organization: University of California Berkeley
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In-Reply-To: jsa@edg1.UUCP's message of 8 Nov 90 14:23:06 GMT

In _Graphic Design for the Electronic Age_ by Jan V. White he spends
several pages listing the advantages of using ragged-right instead of
justified text.  One is that it's easier to read, another is that you
don't usually have line-breaking problems like you're getting.  After
reading this book I've switched over to ragged-right exclusively.
Here are the macros that I use that someone sent me.  I use it with
latex; name it ragright.sty and then use \documentstyle[ragright]{...}
... \ragright.

% This is recommended in the TeXbook, and is probably a good
% idea, though you really need to use it for every single font
% used in your ragged-right text.  It may not be worth the bother.

% turn off stretchability for \raggedright setting
%\fontdimen3\tenrm=0pt \fontdimen4\tenrm=0pt
%\fontdimen3\tenit=0pt \fontdimen4\tenit=0pt
%\fontdimen3\sevrm=0pt \fontdimen4\sevrm=0pt
%\fontdimen3\sevit=0pt \fontdimen4\sevit=0pt

% The rest of the message (down to the .signature) is an excerpt
% from my personal LaTeX .sty file.  Since it contains private
% LaTeX macro names, it must be part of a .sty file, or enclosed
% in \makeatletter ... \makeatother.
%
% I do not redefine the \raggedright command, because it has a
% purpose (alongside \raggedleft and \centering).  Note also that
% immediately after defining \@ragright, I execute it (because I
% want my text to be ragged-right by default).  You may want to
% take that line out.
%
% \raggedskip is the amount of glue to add at the right edge of
% each line; my default (0pt plus4em) gives a decent right edge
% without requiring too many unfortunate hyphenations, at least
% using the typeface I use with the usual LaTeX \hsize.

%
% ragged-right 
%
\newskip\raggedskip
\raggedskip=\z@ plus4em
%
% \@ragright: like \raggedright, but
%   set \@rightskip to something reasonable instead of \@flushglue
%   and leave \parindent alone! (from latex.tex)
%
\newcommand\@ragright{\let\\=\@centercr\@rightskip\raggedskip
  \rightskip\@rightskip
  \leftskip\z@}
%
% civilize \@arrayparboxrestore (from latex.tex)
%
\def\@arrayparboxrestore{\let\par\@@par
    \let\-\@dischyph
    \let\'\@acci \let\`\@accii \let\=\@acciii
    \parindent\z@ \parskip\z@
    \everypar{}\linewidth\hsize 
    \@totalleftmargin\z@ \leftskip\z@
    \@rightskip\raggedskip\rightskip\@rightskip
    \parfillskip\@flushglue \lineskip\normallineskip 
    \baselineskip\normalbaselineskip\sloppy}

% ersatz ragged-right
\newcommand{\ragright}{%
\fontdimen3\elvrm=0pt\relax%
\fontdimen4\elvrm=0pt\relax%
\fontdimen3\elvit=0pt\relax%
\fontdimen4\elvit=0pt\relax%
\fontdimen3\elvsl=0pt\relax%
\fontdimen4\elvsl=0pt\relax%
\fontdimen3\elvbf=0pt\relax%
\fontdimen4\elvbf=0pt\relax%
\@ragright}