new_contents: #!/usr/bin/env python
  
  import sys
  
  def main():
      def width(lines):
          return max(map(len, [' '.join(l) for l in lines]))
  
      lines = [x.split(' ') for x in sys.stdin.read().strip().split('\n')]
      print >>sys.stderr, 'Before - max width:',  width(lines)
  
      making_progress = True
      while making_progress:
          making_progress = False
          for i, l in enumerate(lines):
              if not len(l):
                  continue
              if i > 0:
                  ow = width(lines[i-1:i+1])
                  lines[i-1].append(l.pop(0))
                  nw = width(lines[i-1:i+1])
                  if nw < ow:
                      making_progress = True
                      break
                  l.insert(0, lines[i-1].pop(-1))
              if i < len(lines) - 1:
                  ow = width(lines[i:i+2])
                  lines[i+1].insert(0, l.pop(-1))
                  nw = width(lines[i:i+2])
                  if nw < ow:
                      making_progress = True
                      break
                  l.append(lines[i+1].pop(0))
  
      print >>sys.stderr, 'After - max width:', width(lines)
      for l in lines:
          print ' '.join(l)
  
  if __name__ == '__main__':
      main()
  
subject: Add python script to balance the line length in some text