line adjustment at the end of a sentence - gnu.emacs.help

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Message from discussion line adjustment at the end of a sentence
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From: "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <p...@informatimago.com>
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
Subject: Re: line adjustment at the end of a sentence
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2012 23:18:04 +0200
Organization: Informatimago
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Tom Kramer <kra...@cme.nist.gov> writes:

> Hello emacs help -
>
> I have had the following simple problem with emacs for over two
> decades, so I figured it was time to ask if there is a solution. The
> problem is: when a sentence ends at the end of a line, if the
> paragraph containing the sentence is adjusted by hitting Esc-Q, the
> last word of the sentence is moved to the next line, so that extra
> white space appears. Here is an example. It is set in fixed width font
> as I am typing. If you do not get it in fixed-width font, reset it in
> fixed-width font.
>
> I type the following and then I use Esc-Q to reset the paragraph.
>
> 9/19/12 Worked 9.5 hours. Spent 1 hour misc. Spent 0.5 hour RTFI. Watched
> Mitutoyo vid of IMTS QIF demo. Exchanged email messages with Bob Brown.
>
> The paragraph is reset automatically as follows. The word Brown has been moved from the
> end of the second line to the beginning of a third line.
>
> 9/19/12 Worked 9.5 hours. Spent 1 hour misc. Spent 0.5 hour RTFI. Watched
> Mitutoyo vid of IMTS QIF demo. Exchanged email messages with Bob
> Brown.
>
> This makes no sense. The word Brown fits easily within the right fill
> column (75 in Text Fill mode). The reset paragraph looks terrible. I
> get annoyed and move Brown back to the end of the second line. I have
> just wasted fifteen seconds or so. This happens about once each
> working day. A quarter minute for 200 days a year for 20 years is 1000
> minutes I have wasted on this dumb problem.
>
> Is there a way to get emacs to stop doing that? Thanks.

I don't get the same result as you either, because indeed, my
fill-column setting is not the same.  But one thing you're doing wrong,
is to put a single space after end-of-sentence dots.  Emacs considers a
sentence ends with dot space space, not on dot space.  If you add spaces
after the end of senctences, then justifying the text will give better
results.

With a single space after RTFI. :

9/19/12 Worked 9.5 hours.  Spent 1 hour misc.  Spent 0.5 hour
RTFI. Watched Mitutoyo vid of IMTS QIF demo.  Exchanged email messages
with Bob Brown.


With two spaces after RTFI.  :

9/19/12 Worked 9.5 hours.  Spent 1 hour misc.  Spent 0.5 hour RTFI.
Watched Mitutoyo vid of IMTS QIF demo.  Exchanged email messages with
Bob Brown.


You can also skip over sentences with M-e and M-a, and compare what
happens with a single space and with two spaces after end-of-sentence
dots.


-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/
A bad day in () is better than a good day in {}.
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