[texhax] could someone give me an explanation as to why fontsize fails with an overfull box

[Philip Taylor]

David Carlisle wrote:
> Putting  \sloppy before the text gives latex a bit more freedom to
> stretch white space and avoid an overfull box.
"a bit more freedom" ?  I think that counts as probable understatement 
of 2019 !

> X:\Users\Philip Taylor>latex
> This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.19 (TeX Live 2018/W32TeX) (
>  format=latex)
>  restricted \write18 enabled.
> **\message {\meaning \sloppy}
> entering extended mode
> LaTeX2e <2018-04-01> patch level 5
> macro:->\tolerance 9999\emergencystretch 3em\hfuzz .5\p@ \vfuzz \hfuzz

The \hfuzz/\vfuzz are modest; the \tolerance and \emergencystretch 
excessive, IMHO.

** Phil.