SOSP formatting

[Eddie Kohler]

Hi John, this is about formatting and the SOSP paper. (I'm from the Click
modular router paper.)

The guidelines that you've sent out are reasonable, but, based on my
experience as a graphic designer, I believe they're misguided. No single
format is good enough for all papers, given that there's no graphic
designer working with the authors to implement it.

I understand the desire for consistency in the proceedings, but, having
looked at several recent SOSPs, I don't believe consistency can be
achieved. Even if the font's the same, the sizes will be fractionally
different, or people will use Gnuplot instead of Jgraph for figures, or
Computer Modern Typewriter instead of Courier for code settings, and so on.

And even if perfect consistency could be achieved, it would be a mistake.
Take Satya's most recent mail on the font to be used for figure captions --
he suggests the body font, Times Roman. This may work much better for his
paper. Our paper, however, has 25 figures. We've tried using the body font
for our figure captions, and it simply doesn't work: the captions look too
similar to the body text, so it's hard to find the top of a column -- and
almost every column starts with a figure. The point is not that Times Roman
captions is a bad idea, but that no single format will work, because
(unlike journals) there isn't a single graphic designer working to adapt
the format to individual papers' needs.

What do I want? I'd like to treat the format as a set of guidelines, and
the freedom to deviate from them in the interest of readability. (We have
been experimenting with things like body font, caption appearance, and
section headings.) Basically, I'd like most formatting decisions to be
delegated to the paper authors, who are the people most committed to
ensuring their particular papers look as good as possible.

Eddie Kohler

(Here's an example of how I'd like to interpret the formatting guidelines.

Body font: 10 point
	- Because people without 20/20 eyesight find 9 point very difficult
	to read.
	- Use a seriffed font - for example, Times Roman.
Sections: numbered headings, clearly separated from body text
	- For example, 12-point bold type, flush left, separated from text
	above and below by blank lines.

... etc. ...)