[GRLUG] Just for Bob

[john-thomas richards]

On Thu, Nov 01, 2007 at 11:29:21PM -0400, Raymond McLaughlin wrote:
> Bob Kline wrote:
> started doing
> > with all my e-mails.  Newspaper
> > columns are as narrow as they
> > are so people can read them
> > without moving their eyes. 
> 
> Moving up and down is motion just as much as back and forth is.
> 
> > Bottom line,  it's much faster
> > than trying to follow a long line
> > across a page.
> > 
[snip]
> 
> Generally I prefer longer lines, depending on the situation. I have
> encountered this "less movement" argument before and I'm frankly puzzled
> by it. Not only is up to down just as much "motion" as left to right.
> But I would argue that reading more, shorter, lines involves more, and
> more complex, eye movement. To be specific: reading one long line, from
> left to right, is a single fluid motion; reading several shorter lines
> entails just as much left to right movement, PLUS there is the downward
> and right to left movement, and in addition to that each "new line"
> entails the mental effort of finding the beginning of the CORRECT line.
> 
> Granted, this last argument cuts both ways. The longer the line, the
> more effort is required to find the beginning of the following line.
> Conversely the shorter the lines, the more often the reader has to make
> this effort. Invariably a compromise must be made, and where to make it
> is, IMHO, both situational and subjective.

Bob is correct.  Shorter lines such as his are easier to read on a printed
page.  Ever wonder why Bibles are printed with two narrow columns rather than
like most other books?  It is for this reason: it is easier to read.  It
makes sense that the eye has less up and down movement with longer lines but
the reality is that most people have a much more difficult time moving their
eyes back to the beginning of the next line if it is several inches away from
the end of the previous line.  So the reality is that the extra eye movements
are compensated by a lack of "getting lost" trying to find the next line.

[snip]
> Your narrow posts are well within the rfc,
> b
> u
> t
> 
> t
> h
> e
> n
> 
> a
> g
> a
> i
> n
> ,
> 
> s
> o
> 
> i
> s
> 
> t
> h
> i
> s
> .
> 
> You are, of course, free to post as you like. I won't complain. But If
> you want input on the subject I, for one, prefer lines around 65-80
> character lines.

Heh.  If people posted like *that*, methinks I would unsubscribe.  :-)
-- 
john-thomas
------
Grace is a provision for men who are so fallen that they cannot lift
the axe of justice, so corrupt that they cannot change their own
natures, so averse to God that they cannot turn to Him, so blind that
they cannot see Him, so deaf that they cannot hear Him, and so dead
that He Himself must open their graves and lift them into resurrection.
G.S. Bishop