WHO CARES ABOUT TEXT LAYOUT IN GOPHER?
Marc Mel�ndez Schofield
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Read the first two lines in this document either as a title and the author
or as a question and answer (I care about text layout!). I think Gopher is
great. You just have to write some content in your favourite text editor,
and that's it. It's a pity that plain text files are so uncomfortable to
read.
There is no need to worry, though. I am working on some scripts in
scheme that will allow you to write nice text files with little extra
effort. And when I say "little" I mean little, because it would be absurd
to work on a system in which it takes longer to encode the text format
than it would take to actually do the formatting directly in the text
file. So the script must be simple to use and minimal (no fancy features).
I realize, of course, that there is still much space for improvement,
but one of the great things about this approach is that it is very easy to
modify and improve.
So, what does the first script actually do?
* It justifies text defined as paragraphs.
* It allows you to write centred text (like the title here).
* You can define the width of paragraphs and margins.
* Sections are numbered automatically.
* You can define pre-formatted text.
* You can insert endnotes, like this one:
[See endnote number 1]
1. How to use the script
The easiest way to see how to use the script is to look at the souce
file that generated this text file. It is pretty self-explanatory. You can
find it at my gopher site, in the programming/scheme directory:
gopher://sdf.lonestar.org/1/users/marcmmw/eng
2. Understanding the script
You can check out my scheme code in the same directory mentioned above.
If you are interested in helping me out, please leave me an e-mail here at
sdf.lonestar.org (I am user marcmmw).
3. Room for improvement
Here is a list of some additional functionality options. It is important
to remember that we are not looking for loads of features. We want code
that makes our lives easier. I didn't include a system to create numbered
lists, for example, because it is easier to write the list directly in pre-
formatted text.
New functions:
* Textboxes and figures.
It would also be nice to have whitespace distributed more evenly in
paragraphs (instead of having more whitespace in the left half of the
paragraph).
[See endnote number 2]
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Endnotes
[1] This is an example of an endnote, which is inserted in the endnotes
section.
[2] Another endnote (just testing).
