[OS X Emacs] Re: Configure Hard Wrap Option

[xah lee]

it's useful to me for example, sometimes i work with plain text such as
essays or novels (e.g. http://www.gutenberg.org/ ).

So, when working with files such as plain text novel, the line going from
window border to border is hard to read. I could make it shorter by changing
my window to smaller width, but then that effects all other buffers.

this is more easily seen with websites and browses. Many tech geeker's
personal sites don't have good css and the lines goes from window border to
border. If you narrow the window, then all the pages in other tabs becomes
unreadable.  (e.g.  http://angg.twu.net/eev-article.html
http://common-lisp.net/~dlw/LispSurvey.html )

in both cases, a solution is just to create a new window. This is not
optimal solution because then you start to open many windows each with a
particular width.

i think word processor's margin concept is a good one here. In emacs, we
might create a display-margin-left and display-margin-right, both being
buffer local.

For example, BBEdit/TextWrangler support display margins. You have to turn
it on in Preference panel. (my previous post on this was wrong.)

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄

2009/3/18 David Reitter <david.reitter at gmail.com>

> On Mar 18, 2009, at 8:13 PM, xahlee at gmail.com wrote:
>
>> In aquamacs emacs, if you have a long line say 3000 chars, and you turn on
>> “Soft Word Wrap” under “Options”. Then, drag your window to wide, you'll see
>> that the line keeps going from left window border to right window border.
>> That is, there is no right margin.
>>
>> longlines-mode, effectively introduces right margin. Buggy and the way its
>> done is a hack. Possibly emacs will need to introduce the concept of margins
>> in its display system.
>>
>> I just looked at XCode. Apparently it doesn't have margin neither. I
>> looked at Eclisp, apparently no. Nor TextWrangler/BBEdit. I wonder if
>> TextMate support it, or MS Visual Studio. (note: all word processors support
>> margins. TextEdit also does if you are in rich text mode.)
>>
>
> I fail to see what the purpose of such a margin would be.
> If a user thinks the formatting is too wide, then they can make the window
> smaller, or press Command-+ to enlarge the font (zoom).
>
>
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