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Writing one sentence per line

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Re: Writing one sentence per line

#251

Post by sangnoir »

dahfizz wrote: post #247
hinkley wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we need to start changing this. In an era of language servers, perhaps our diff tools should be semantic instead of line based. I get so tired of seeing diffs where I add a function and the diff shows that I added it inside the previous function instead of between them, because it starts the diff one line too early.

Yes! I find `git diff` to be the most annoying thing about git. I can be pretty forgiving of the clunky UX, but the diff output is just wrong. People often say of git, "The porcelain is bad but the plumbing is good". The opposite is true for digging, IMO.

Fortunately, git permits the use of external difftools. One can easily configure git to use their preferred semantic diff tool and git wouldn't even care. The plumbing is excellent.

Re: Writing one sentence per line

#252

Post by mjcohen »

The mathematician Lillian R. Lieber wrote a number of expository books in which the text had one phrase per line. I found this extremely easy to read, and I write my LaTex this way, which makes it very easy to edit.

Here is what the previous paragraph would look like in her style:

The mathematician Lillian R. Lieber

wrote a number of expository books

in which the text had one phrase per line.

I found this extremely easy to read,

and I write my LaTex this way,

which makes it very easy to edit.

I highly recommend the wikipedia article about her and its references:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Rosanoff_Lieber#Unusua...

Re: Writing one sentence per line

#253

Post by dctoedt »

swamp40 wrote: post #174

I have to do this in my emails. Most people just ignore the second and third sentences in a paragraph. No idea why, drives me crazy - but this does help. You can tell they don't read them because they ask questions that were answered in them.

> Most people just ignore the second and third sentences in a paragraph.

The military expression is BLUF - Bottom Line Up Front. (It works for paragraphs as well as for entire documents.)

Re: Writing one sentence per line

#254

Post by fknorangesite »

soheil wrote: post #170
Disruptive_Dave wrote: post #8

This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences.…

> The writing is getting boring. What is this obsession with writing not being boring? If you're reading the passphrase to disarm a nuclear missile do you think you might get bored halfway if the sentences are too long? I never understood why people insist on having short sentences. Human thought does not come in a small pre-packaged short sentence form. Some of the best philosophers wrote very long sentences, look a…

> What is this obsession with writing not being boring?

This may come as a surprise, but sometimes a piece of writing is not technical documentation.

Re: Writing one sentence per line

#255

Post by fknorangesite »

HKH2 wrote: post #222
joedavison wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The semicolon is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. That makes your example 5-10-5 words instead of 5-5-5-5. Try using a period instead of semicolon and hear how it sounds.

What difference does it make? They are multiples of five. Are they okay to him? I doubt that is so. He dislikes chunks of five. He was not prescribing semicolons. That would still bother him.

I think you might be missing the forest for the trees, here. It's not about five-word sentences; it's about the repetition making the paragraph as a whole monotonous and robotic - something you demonstrated very well in this very comment.

Re: Writing one sentence per line

#256

Post by Groxx »

hinkley wrote: post #239
luhn wrote: post #209

One big advantage not mentioned in the article particularly relevant to this audience: git diffs (or your VCS of choice). One sentence per line means diffs will operate per-sentence, rather than per-paragraph. This way the diff can capture the restructuring of the paragraph (adding/removing/replacing a sentence), which gives much more insight than swapping out the paragraph wholesale. It also means minor changes (e.g…

I think we need to start changing this. In an era of language servers, perhaps our diff tools should be semantic instead of line based. I get so tired of seeing diffs where I add a function and the diff shows that I added it inside the previous function instead of between them, because it starts the diff one line too early.

Debuggers and stack traces too. Logic is not line-based.

When you get a NPE on a line containing `thing.method(x.y.z, q(), w.e().rty())`, which item is it on? Type information is insufficient, there could be multiple of the same thing on the same line.

Some debuggers are smarter ("step to cursor" sometimes goes to in-line locations), but many are not, and most languages I've seen will give you precise compile-time error locations, but at runtime all you get is lines. Lines suck.

Re: Writing one sentence per line

#257

Post by Groxx »

hinkley wrote: post #243
ghaff wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>No idea why Because that tends to be how people skim. If the first sentence of a paragraph doesn't catch their attention in some way, they subconsciously assume that the rest of the paragraph (which is presumably related) doesn't need to be read.

Which is why “don’t bury the lede” is such important advice. Also please rehearse what you would say to your family if you got into a car wreck and they wanted to check you out at the hospital versus “mom is going into surgery for massive hemorrhaging.” “Hey son, we’re okay, but we got into a bad fender bender and we’re getting checked out at Hoskin’s Hospital. The car is dead so can you come pick us up, maybe bring…

This is all also useful advice for helping people deal with notifications for work. They might see "@xyz can help you with this..." and miss "... when they have time next week".

Help people triage. Make the urgency clear in the first couple words. Don't just send "hi" and then wait for a response, nor "X is down" when someone else is already on it and you're just giving them an FYI.

Re: Writing one sentence per line

#258

Post by reirob »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #245
rpastuszak wrote: post #20

I approach this by separating writing from editing. Just keep writing, ignore the typos, self-censorship or formatting and keep moving. So, I've build myself an app to make that easier. Essentially, it's just a more stupid version of a text box. It's free, it's private, and it's meant to put you in the state of flow. I've been using it every day for the past 3 years or so and I know that some people find it useful to…

I totally agree. My approach is to just turn of the monitor.

I made a colorscheme for vim that uses same color for font and background. Use it sometimes when I need to write long confusing thoughts. It's quite a nice experience, the sentences turn out to be similar to the way I would speak, but still with more thought and deepness.

Re: Writing one sentence per line

#259

Post by btgeekboy »

Groxx wrote: post #256
hinkley wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we need to start changing this. In an era of language servers, perhaps our diff tools should be semantic instead of line based. I get so tired of seeing diffs where I add a function and the diff shows that I added it inside the previous function instead of between them, because it starts the diff one line too early.

Debuggers and stack traces too. Logic is not line-based. When you get a NPE on a line containing `thing.method(x.y.z, q(), w.e().rty())`, which item is it on? Type information is insufficient, there could be multiple of the same thing on the same line. Some debuggers are smarter ("step to cursor" sometimes goes to in-line locations), but many are not, and most languages I've seen will give you precise compile-time er…

Aside, I’m really excited to move to a newer JDK: https://openjdk.org/jeps/358

Re: Writing one sentence per line

#260

Post by yellowapple »

jhardy54 wrote: post #163
avgcorrection wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good typography seems to dictate a wider space after a sentence than between words. So this is a typewriter habit to mimic that kind of thing (like the sibling noted).

Some people might prefer two spaces, but my understanding is that all authorities on “good typography” have standardized on one space: https://practicaltypography.com/one-space-between-sentences....

Those authorities on "good typography" are wrong. They prioritize text looking pretty over text conveying information clearly and accurately, and the world is worse off because of it. Two spaces as the sentence delimiter is superior in every way that actually matters, and I will die on that hill.
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