Why does PG format texts the way it does?
PG texts are formatted as plain ASCII, with 60-70 characters per line, with a hard return [CR/LF] at end of line, and some people ask “Why do it this way? You could omit the hard returns and let the reader’s word processor or Reader software wrap the lines. You could use “8-bit” accented characters for non-English characters.” “You could use ‘ – ‘ instead of ‘–‘ for an em-dash.” And so on, through a different choice we could make for every formatting feature. And the answer, of course, is that we could do it differently, and sometimes we do, but mostly we keep to one consistent style. We’ll be discussing each of the formatting decisions below, not only giving the summary PG answer, but also discussing the plusses and minuses of each, and the possible options. Like any question beginning “Why does/doesn’t PG . . . ?”, the answer is “Because that’s what the volunteers and readers want!”. These conventions have been worked out over the years, largely by Michael Hart, our founder and chie
