[rescue] Re: [SunHELP] Solaris 9, First thoughts

[s at avoidant.org]

Brian Hechinger wrote:

> machine running. i have got a pretty good brick text going here and i wonder
> how far i can take it.  damn, laziness sets in.  screw it.


If you want to do the justification thing, I really think we ought to
take it
to geeks. I'm quite good at making all my text line up nicely. I'm not
really
sure why, it just seems that my brain works that way. I've done whole
mailing
list posts this way in the past, and without any of the strange
syntactic and
grammatic tricks some people pull to get it to work. I've even seen
folks try
stupid things like inserting extra spaces in the middle of the line
hoping it
wouldn't be noticed. One long run-on paragraph is easy enough, but for
better
effect it should really be split, with each paragraph justified the same
way.

Another cool trick, which I have only managed to pull off once, and
doubt can
be repeated, is to write each line one character shorter than the
preceding,
all the way down to a final one character line, which would, natuarally,
be
a period to end the insane run-on sentence that paragraph would be. I'm
no
expert, but I don't think it can be done again, even by someone who's
got
all the time in the world on their hands. There was probably a typo that
snuck in, so it looked good but didn't really work. Especially consider
the fact that I'm such a lousy typist, and the chance that it could be
as easy as I make it seem becomes slim indeed. Factor in the time, so
you get a complete picture, and you begin to see that it's really an
amazing feat if it can be accomplished. I don't think it can, but I
give myself far less credit than I probably deserve. If I could do
it once, why can't I do it again? It's not really so hard, is it?
I mean, just measure your words, count letters, punctuate right,
type carefully, and let it flow. The biggest problem I have now
is making sure it makes sense. I mean, I could insert all sort
of gibberish in here to fill out the lines, but that wouldn't
be right, would it? It's got to read well, and those kind of
things never do. Not that this is all that great, but it'll
have to do. I mean, what kind of content do you really get
when all you're writing wbout is writing? OK, so sometime
I'll look for the post where I pulled this trick off and
see just what I wrote about there. I don't doubt it was
just as inane as this, but then, if you can do better,
do it. But don't criticize my effort 'till you've put
your own skills to the test. This is no small task I
seem to have set for myself here. It gets harder as
the lines get shorter, and it'll continue as I get
farther and farther down the page. Soon, the line
length will determine the maximum word length, I
think. Have to use words like "I" and "on" more
than I should. In fact, I've probably exceeded
my quota of the use of the word "I" for posts
this month in this one paragraph. Or maybe I
can do it. It's not so hard. It's not going
to be accomplished, though, by use of word
manipulations that wouldn't fit in normal
speech. That would be cheating, wouldn't
it? Hmmm, maybe I should stop here. You
probably aren't interested anyway, and
this really doesn't belong on rescue,
does it? But I'm so close, it's just
a few more lines. What the hell? If
it turns out that I shouldn't have
posted this, I'll just shut up in
shame and not post much more for
the day. If I'm even able to do
that, that is. I'm really past
some theoretical point of not
being able to stop here, and
if I do, then sending is no
longer an option. It's now
do or die, with die being
most likely. Chances are
I'll run out of ways to
make the text fit, and
scrap the post before
I hit "send". Really
pushing it now. I'm
running out of two
letter words, and
things have gone
all funny. This
has taken more
time than I'd
planned, and
isn't worth
the effort
it takes.
Continue
typing,
see it
fail.
Done
now
am
I


---sambo