Peter,
Sorry for causing any trouble. I only recently joined this group and I
wasn't aware of this groups' desire for 80 character line lengths limits.
I never intended to suggest that all email revolves around MS Outlook.
I use it because it works well for me. I know that the mail readers in
Netscape and IE both support autowrap and the ability to size the
window as desired. When this approach is used for email, the added
> > (or | | or whichever) characters only appear at the beginning of each
paragraph, so they don't scramble the contents of the email. So, nesting
can continue forever, if desired. I (and others) think this is a big
advantage - especially in mail groups where replies bounce back and
forth. But, it's just suggestion.
BTW, would it cause you any problems to turn wrap on? This way you
could handle any line length you encountered.
Mark Champion
Sony Electronics
206-524-0014
mark.champion_at_am.sony.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pete Turnbull" <pete_at_dunnington.u-net.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2000 1:30 AM
Subject: Re: Tek 4014/5 emulation
> On Jun 14, 17:58, Mark Champion wrote:
>
> > Regarding the line length, I presume most users use "word-wrap" for their
> email readers. This allows the reader to format the screen as desired
> (similar to the way web browsers handle text). I believe all HTML
> compatible email programs have this capability.
>
> No they don't; and in any case many list members don't use "HTML
> compatible" or even MIME-aware readers. HTML has no place in email. Email
> does not revolve around M$ Outlook :-)
>
> As you see from the above, you lose the quoting when most software does the
> wrapping after the event. It's an accepted convention to keep lines short
> -- and I seem to remember we had this discussion a few months ago?
>
> > The big advantage of handling email this way is that when the line
> lengths increase due to the > or > > or > > > which stack-up with each
> reply, the email remains completely readable and well formatted. (I'm sure
> everyone has received the email which is littered with tons of > > > > > >
> > > > and barely intelligible.)
>
> Well, I find the nesting usually makes it easier to retain attribution --
> and I've never seen any software which can handle post-wrapping and keep
> the correct indentations. Particularly since not everyone uses the same
> quoting characters (I use "> " but others may use "<" or ":" with or
> without a following space).
>
> > If this is a general problem for other readers, let me know and I will
> add the line breaks for any additional posts to this group.
>
> Yes please.
>
> --
>
> Pete Peter Turnbull
> Dept. of Computer Science
> University of York
Received on Thu Jun 15 2000 - 12:36:11 BST