Word Processors with Line-Wrap: Cascading, Self-Organized Criticality, Random Walks, Diffusion, Predictability

Abstract

We examine the line-wrap feature of text processors and show that adding characters to previously formatted lines leads to the cascading of words to subsequent lines and forms a state of self-organized criticality. We show the connection to one-dimensional random walks and diffusion problems, and we examine the predictability of catastrophic cascades.

6 pages, LaTeX with RevTeX package, 4 postscript figures appended