6 ms·

I personally use this approach but mostly because a lot of what I write ends up in a git repository and diffs make way more sense when there is only one sentenc

I personally use this approach but mostly because a lot of what I write ends up in a git repository and diffs make way more sense when there is only one sentence per line. I also find things much easier to manipulate in vim when sentences don't span lines.

pointlessone 4y ago
Vim has built-in text object for sentences. It supports sentences spanning multiple lines.
- michaelmior 4y ago
  Yes, but I still find it more convenient to have sentences on their own line. Vim's sentence text object does also not always correspond correctly to actual sentences.
ketzu 4y ago
> diffs make way more sense when there is only one sentence per line I did the same thing for some time for papers at university for the same reason. It used to annoy me, because I hate to change for my tools, I rather have my tools support my workflow: There should be a nicer diff for that.
- TheFreim 4y ago
  You could write a script which replaces the end of sentences with a new line and use git hooks[0] to run it before every commit. You wouldn't have to write any differently. 0. https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Customizing-Git-Git-Hooks https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Customizing-Git-Git-Hooks
  - michaelmior 4y ago
    This would require accurately detecting the end of the sentence which is not an easy thing to do correctly consistently.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - dubya 4y ago
      Two spaces between sentences makes this easy, and should be just as easy a habit as one sentence per line.
      - kadoban 4y ago
        That's about as unnatural for most people as newline per sentence, and has the added risk that you'll accidentally publish like that and it'll look weird. One per line would be _much_ harder to accidentally publish because it's more obvious.
        BeFlatXIII 4y ago
        Two spaces between sentences is how I've always typed them, even if it's in HTML or MD or other forms that will condense them into a single space in the final render. The two spaces mark a clear intent to end a sentence instead of a period to punctuate an abbreviation.
        TheFreim 4y ago
        Many people learned to add two spaces to the end of each sentence which is now built in to their muscle memory. My father learned to type adding two spaces to the end of every sentence, they tried to teach that to me in computer class in middle school but since I had a lot of experience typing already without it I never felt motivated to change my habit to add two spaces. I never really saw the point, in most formats I can't see the two spaces.
        wongarsu 4y ago
        Two spaces after each sentence comes from typewriters, where it supposedly looked better. On computers it made sense in the time of monospaced fonts, but with "modern" fonts being able to control the amount of space behind punctuation it's largely redundant.
- m4lvin 4y ago
  git diff --word-diff
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- fragmede 4y ago
  There is! If you're using Git, you can do git diff --word-diff to enable word mode, which is computationally more expensive, but computing power is cheap these days. There's also an "ignore whitespace" mode (-w), though that doesn't play well with Python.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - irq-1 4y ago
    Cool! An example: You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all different. You are in a little maze of twisty passages, all different. You are in a little maze of twisting passages, all different. You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all different. You are in a[-little-] maze of twisty {+little+} passages, all different. You are in a[-little-] maze of [-twisting-]{+twisty little+} passages, all different. You are in a {+little+} maze of twisty[-little-] passages, all different. You are in a little maze of twisty passages, all different. You are in a little maze of [-twisting-]{+twisty+} passages, all different. You are in a {+little+} maze of [-twisty little-]{+twisting+} passages, all different. You are in a little maze of [-twisty-]{+twisting+} passages, all different. You are in a little maze of twisting passages, all different.
    - cratermoon 4y ago
      Plugh
  - ketzu 4y ago
    Thank you, that's a nice feature. I hope I won't forget it until I need it again.
TremendousJudge 4y ago
Yeah, same here. If you're going to have any text commited to git, it'll work much better if it's one sentence per line. Not that git is great for prose, but it kinda does the job and I don't need to have a new tool. Hammers, nails.
- kadoban 4y ago
  > Not that git is great for prose, but it kinda does the job and I don't need to have a new tool. Is there really something better? Git is pretty great in general, and prose doesn't seem like there'd be much room for improvement in tooling. I'm not a writer really though, so maybe I'm missing something?
  - ghaff 4y ago
    At least with a controlled circle of people who respect that, say, handing off a doc to an editor means they shouldn't make inline changes any longer, collaborative doc editing like Google Docs. As the above implies, you don't have great version control and some of the process management is manual. But it works well for people accustomed to working that way and it's much more familiar for people who don't regularly use git (or use it at all).
avgcorrection 4y ago
I mean, I’m happy that this was not a yet another sysadmin/programmer-as-writer justification (adjusting one’s whole workflow based on the handful of terminal programs that one uses). EDIT: Meaning that I think this kind of justification is more interesting since it is meant to affect the process of writing itself.
- michaelmior 4y ago
  I won't say I'm not guilty of that too sometimes. Although I don't think it's so bad. If there's a tool that you really like using that can be adapted to work in a variety of scenarios, I can understand the justification. For some of the things I do, there probably are better tools for the job, but if I can make use of existing tools I already know how to use well, even if in a suboptimal way, that might be more worthwhile to me than investing in learning something new.
  - avgcorrection 4y ago
    Yep, indeed. Whatever works.
arathore 4y ago
Exactly, I mostly write in Latex and one-sentence-per-line makes so much sense for that.

pointlessone 4y ago

Vim has built-in text object for sentences. It supports sentences spanning multiple lines.

michaelmior 4y ago
Yes, but I still find it more convenient to have sentences on their own line. Vim's sentence text object does also not always correspond correctly to actual sentences.

ketzu 4y ago

> diffs make way more sense when there is only one sentence per line I did the same thing for some time for papers at university for the same reason. It used to annoy me, because I hate to change for my tools, I rather have my tools support my workflow: There should be a nicer diff for that.

TheFreim 4y ago
You could write a script which replaces the end of sentences with a new line and use git hooks[0] to run it before every commit. You wouldn't have to write any differently. 0. https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Customizing-Git-Git-Hooks https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Customizing-Git-Git-Hooks
- michaelmior 4y ago
  This would require accurately detecting the end of the sentence which is not an easy thing to do correctly consistently.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - dubya 4y ago
    Two spaces between sentences makes this easy, and should be just as easy a habit as one sentence per line.
    - kadoban 4y ago
      That's about as unnatural for most people as newline per sentence, and has the added risk that you'll accidentally publish like that and it'll look weird. One per line would be _much_ harder to accidentally publish because it's more obvious.
      - BeFlatXIII 4y ago
        Two spaces between sentences is how I've always typed them, even if it's in HTML or MD or other forms that will condense them into a single space in the final render. The two spaces mark a clear intent to end a sentence instead of a period to punctuate an abbreviation.
        TheFreim 4y ago
        Many people learned to add two spaces to the end of each sentence which is now built in to their muscle memory. My father learned to type adding two spaces to the end of every sentence, they tried to teach that to me in computer class in middle school but since I had a lot of experience typing already without it I never felt motivated to change my habit to add two spaces. I never really saw the point, in most formats I can't see the two spaces.
        wongarsu 4y ago
        Two spaces after each sentence comes from typewriters, where it supposedly looked better. On computers it made sense in the time of monospaced fonts, but with "modern" fonts being able to control the amount of space behind punctuation it's largely redundant.
m4lvin 4y ago
git diff --word-diff
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
fragmede 4y ago
There is! If you're using Git, you can do git diff --word-diff to enable word mode, which is computationally more expensive, but computing power is cheap these days. There's also an "ignore whitespace" mode (-w), though that doesn't play well with Python.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- irq-1 4y ago
  Cool! An example: You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all different. You are in a little maze of twisty passages, all different. You are in a little maze of twisting passages, all different. You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all different. You are in a[-little-] maze of twisty {+little+} passages, all different. You are in a[-little-] maze of [-twisting-]{+twisty little+} passages, all different. You are in a {+little+} maze of twisty[-little-] passages, all different. You are in a little maze of twisty passages, all different. You are in a little maze of [-twisting-]{+twisty+} passages, all different. You are in a {+little+} maze of [-twisty little-]{+twisting+} passages, all different. You are in a little maze of [-twisty-]{+twisting+} passages, all different. You are in a little maze of twisting passages, all different.
  - cratermoon 4y ago
    Plugh
- ketzu 4y ago
  Thank you, that's a nice feature. I hope I won't forget it until I need it again.

TremendousJudge 4y ago

Yeah, same here. If you're going to have any text commited to git, it'll work much better if it's one sentence per line. Not that git is great for prose, but it kinda does the job and I don't need to have a new tool. Hammers, nails.

kadoban 4y ago
> Not that git is great for prose, but it kinda does the job and I don't need to have a new tool. Is there really something better? Git is pretty great in general, and prose doesn't seem like there'd be much room for improvement in tooling. I'm not a writer really though, so maybe I'm missing something?
- ghaff 4y ago
  At least with a controlled circle of people who respect that, say, handing off a doc to an editor means they shouldn't make inline changes any longer, collaborative doc editing like Google Docs. As the above implies, you don't have great version control and some of the process management is manual. But it works well for people accustomed to working that way and it's much more familiar for people who don't regularly use git (or use it at all).

avgcorrection 4y ago

I mean, I’m happy that this was not a yet another sysadmin/programmer-as-writer justification (adjusting one’s whole workflow based on the handful of terminal programs that one uses). EDIT: Meaning that I think this kind of justification is more interesting since it is meant to affect the process of writing itself.

michaelmior 4y ago
I won't say I'm not guilty of that too sometimes. Although I don't think it's so bad. If there's a tool that you really like using that can be adapted to work in a variety of scenarios, I can understand the justification. For some of the things I do, there probably are better tools for the job, but if I can make use of existing tools I already know how to use well, even if in a suboptimal way, that might be more worthwhile to me than investing in learning something new.
- avgcorrection 4y ago
  Yep, indeed. Whatever works.

arathore 4y ago

Exactly, I mostly write in Latex and one-sentence-per-line makes so much sense for that.