[tex-live] Line endings, TeX

[Dan Luecking]

On Sat Sep 26 at 22:17:48 CEST 2009 Peter Cibulka 
<mailto:tex-live%40tug.org?Subject=Re%3A%20%5Btex-live%5D%20Line%20endings%2C%20TeX%20%26%20friends%2C%20TeX%20Live%202008/2009&In-Reply-To=%3C2933.6821-11795-1940852113-1253996268%40seznam.cz%3E>Peter.Cibulka 
at seznam.cz
wrote


> > From: Akira Kakuto 
> <<http://www.tug.org/pipermail/tex-live/2009-September/http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-live>kakuto 
> at fuk.kindai.ac.jp>
> > Date: 26.9.2009 14:25:48
> > ----------------------------------------
> > > Whilst experimenting with the GFS Didot example circulated
> > > earlier today, I had occasion to open "GFS-Didot.log" in
> > > Notepad, and saw that the line-endings were incorrect;
> >
> > W32 TeX-output text files have line endings of Unix type: 0x0a.
> > This decision is due to my taste.
>
> > If you need to use Notepad, run
> > todos GFS-Didot.log
> > Then line endings become \r\n.
>
>Akira, thank you for the recomendation, I've opened *.log by IE for the
>same reason.
>Now todos works well, although still I think the line-endings in Win
>implementation should be \r\n.
>
>BTW Is it possible to increase the line length limit for *.log files, or
>remove limit completely and leave it on viewers line wrap option?

Please no, no, No, NoNoNoNo. Plain text files (and that includes
READMEs, newsgroup postings, log files, and even email messages)
should have line lengths set at no more than 80 character (72 is
better). One shouldn't assume everyone uses a file viewer with
line-wrap turned on. I seldom do, as one cannot then tell where
real line endings are.

Line endings have meaning. Well typeset text doesn't have lines
running to arbitrary lengths. Plain text information should be
similarly constrained, it makes things easier on everyone.

It is an orthogonal issue, but I also prefer Unix line endings,
even though I work almost exclusively on Windows. It is so much
easier to exchange information when a common format is adhered
to. Keep things how they are or, if an option is provided, make
make the current behavior the default.


Dan

P.S. I read this tex-live email list via its archives. There the
message bodies are wrapped in <pre> ... </pre>. Then I have to
scroll several screens rightward to read these ungodly long line
some of you write (and you probably don't even know who you are).



Daniel H. Luecking
Department of Mathematical Sciences
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, AR 72701