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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ittvax!wxlvax!rlw
From: rlw@wxlvax.UUCP (Richard L. Wexelblat)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Long messages -- long modules
Message-ID: <210@wxlvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 30-Nov-83 19:01:21 EST
Article-I.D.: wxlvax.210
Posted: Wed Nov 30 19:01:21 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Dec-83 22:55:45 EST
References: uiucdcs.4202
Lines: 18

Back before the days when  "structured programming"  came into vogue,   we had
a discussion on module sizes.    My  opinion is  that the  maximum size  for a
module was exactly the screen size.  The point is comprehension.  What can you
take in in a gestalt?  We wrote our programs in little pieces because that was
all we wanted to have to understand in a "glop."

I feel the same way with mail and news.   Reading news is for fun, for relaxa-
tion, and for communication.  In all three contexts, brevity is optimal.

Agreed, many long messages are worth taking the time to read.   If so,  unless
the value or significance is  made clear in  the first few lines,  chances are 
I'll skip it.  Same goes for items with semantics-free titles.

By the way,  blank space is sometimes useful.   If logorrhetics would just use
blank lines to delimit paragraphs and limit paragraphs to, say, 5 to 10 lines,
their items would have a better chance of being read.

Aufwiederfernschreiben,  Dick Wexelblat (...decvax!ittvax!wxlvax!rlw)