[texhax] hyphenation ...

[William F. Adams]

On Nov 15, 2004, at 2:00 PM, David Lesmond wrote:

>   A journal (Journal of Financial Economics) does NOT want 
> hyphenation. Unfortunately, TeX hyphenates so well that forcing no 
> hyphenation using:
>   
>     \hyphenpenalty=10000
>  \exhyphenpenalty=10000
>   
> causes the tolerance to be exceeded and nasty blocks placed at the end 
> of the line where hyphenation should occur. Is there any way to get 
> TeX to not hyphenate and still leave the text without the nasty blocks 
> at the end of the line and still get reasonable looking output? Any 
> help here? bye ...

As quoted in _The TeXbook_ (source at the end):

> When the author objects to [a hyphenation]\/
> he should be asked to add or cancel or substitute
> a word or words that will prevent the breakage.
> \smallskip
> Authors who insist on even spacing always,
> with sightly divisions always,
> do not clearly understand the rigidity of types.
> \author T. L. ^{DE VINNE}, {\sl Correct Composition\/} (1901) % p138, 
> p206

Hmm, that last is in the public domain --- anyone know if it's 
available on-line?

A cursory search doesn't show it.

Anyway, like the old saying goes, ``quick, cheap, good --- pick any 
two''. Similarly, as Robin noted, for setting text, you've got to 
compromise on something --- either you hyphenate to keep lines looking 
decent, re-write the text, or accept that occasionally w/ /sloppy & the 
like thing will be ugly.

William

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