Is D the Answer to the One vs. Two Language High ,Performance Computing Dilemma?

[Nick Sabalausky]

On Sun, 11 Aug 2013 09:28:21 -0700
Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> wrote:

> On 8/11/13 8:49 AM, monarch_dodra wrote:
> > On Sunday, 11 August 2013 at 15:42:24 UTC, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> >> On Sun, 11 Aug 2013 01:22:34 -0700
> >> Walter Bright <newshound2 at digitalmars.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> http://elrond.informatik.tu-freiberg.de/papers/WorldComp2012/PDP3426.pdf
> >>
> >> Holy crap those two-column PDFs are hard to read! Why in the world
> >> does academia keep doing that anyway? (Genuine question, not
> >> rhetoric)
> >>
> >> But the fact that article even exists is really freaking
> >> awesome. :)
> >
> > My guess is simply because it takes more space, making a 4 page
> > article look like a 7 page ;)
> 
> Double columns take less space

Per column yes, but overall, no. The same number of chars + same font
== same amount of space no matter how you rearrange them.

If anything, double columns take more space due to the inner margin and
increased number of line breaks (triggering more word-wrapping and thus
more space wasted due to more wrapped words - and that's just as true
with justified text as it is with left/right/center-aligned.

> and are more readable.
> 

In *print* double-columns are arguably more readable (although I've
honestly never found that to be the case personally, at least when
we're talking roughly 8.5" x 11" pages).

But it's certainly not more readable in PDFs, which work like this
(need monospaced font):

       Start
         |         /|
         |        / |
         |  Scroll  |
         |   Up /   |
  Scroll |     /    |  Scroll
   Down	 |    /     |   Down
         |   /      |
         |  /       |
         | /        |
         |/         |
                   /
          /-------/
         /
         |         /|
         |        / |
         |  Scroll  |
         |   Up /   |
  Scroll |     /    |  Scroll
   Down	 |    /     |   Down
         |   /      |
         |  /       |
         | /        |
         |/         |
                   /
          /-------/
         /
         |         /|
         |        / |
         |  Scroll  |
         |   Up /   |
  Scroll |     /    |  Scroll
   Down	 |    /     |   Down
         |   /      |
         |  /       |
         | /        |
         |/         |
                    |
                   End

Of course, you can zoom out enough that the entire page is viewable on
one screen so you don't have that ridiculous scroll-dance, but then
everything becomes too small to be readable, unless you're one of the
rare few who have a monitor that swivels vertically or some
ridiculous size like 36" (which isn't applicable to the vast majority
of users).