Re: Line breaks in @file{} entries?

[Carl Sorensen]

On 11/26/10 2:41 PM, "Trevor Daniels" <address@hidden> wrote:
> Carl Sorensen wrote Friday, November 26, 2010 6:43 PM
>> On 11/26/10 10:51 AM, "Valentin Villenave"
>> <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
>>> Er, are you suggesting that
>>> @file{this/is/a/very/long/path/towards/myfile.scm}
>>> should be printed without a line break?
> 
>> I am suggesting this.  I would much prefer to keep file paths on
>> one line as
>> long as they fit.
> 
> Yes, /as long as they fit/, but fit into what?

I think the proposed 50 character limit is probably reasonable.

> 
>>>> Hhm. Not sure. I think I'd prefer "more than three dashes or
>>>> slashes",
>>>> if we are to do it that way, but really it depends more on the
>>>> total length
>>>> of the name rather than the number of dashes and slashes. I'd
>>>> prefer
>>>> "if the name is longer than 50 characters (say)".
>>>> And if the name is too long then I'd prefer to place a single
>>>> optional break
>>>> near to the middle, so we don't get tiny fragments at the end or
>>>> start of
>>>> lines.
>>> 
>>> Both suggestions seem reasonable and easy enough to achieve.
>>> (50 chars are really long, though.)
> 
>> But a file name really *is* a single piece of information, so it
>> should be
>> kept on one line.  If it's so long it won't fit on one line, then
>> we should
>> decide where to break it, rather than having it be done
>> automatically at any
>> slash.
> 
> Ideally, yes.  But who is going to look manually through
> all the docs?  Better to do it automatically first, then
> fix up any that stand out as poor when we notice them.
> Otherwise we might have some names running over the right
> margin in 2.14.  Don't forget we've now lost the ones
> that were done manually before - and some of them /were/
> correct.

I don't think we disagree here.  It appeared to me that Valentin was
thinking that 50 characters was too long.   I am arguing that 50 characters
is an appropriate maximum length.  A typical optimum line length appears to
be 55-75 characters, so 50 characters is most of a line.  I'd totally agree
with breaking file names that are too long.  What automatic breaking
algorithm would you propose for file names longer than 50 characters?  The
slash closest to the center?

Thanks,

Carl