Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!cornell!murthy From: murthy@algron.cs.cornell.edu (Chet Murthy) Newsgroups: comp.text.tex Subject: Re: Theses: a cry for help! Message-ID: <48205@cornell.UUCP> Date: 11 Nov 90 23:46:24 GMT References: Sender: nobody@cornell.UUCP Distribution: comp Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept. Ithaca NY Lines: 21 tim@cstr.ed.ac.uk (Tim Bradshaw) writes: >Here at Edinburgh the University recommendations for theses specify >`1.5 to 2' line spacing, and these regulations are enforced. This >means that theses both look nasty and are hard to read (and also that >I spend a lot of time breaking my nice thesis document style!). >Clearly this regulation dates from the days of typewritten theses: >it's just bizarre to take output from something like TeX and damage it >like this. But bureaucrats don't like change do they? There is another possible reason for this. Many universities in the US put their theses onto microfilm thru University Microfilms as a way of disseminating the work to other libraries. And of archiving it for posterity in case the local library burns down. Microfilm tends to reduce the readability of printed matter, so big spaces between lines and large print both help ensure that the resulting microfilm is more readable. --chet--