TIP: Click on subject to list as thread! ANSI
echo: offline
to: All
from: Charles Angelich
date: 2002-12-08 13:01:10
subject: fwiw

Hello All - 

Noticed an ongoing discussion of 'wordwrap' for FIDO echos. 

I too had problems when rewriting the wordwrap for ATP. 

A large part of the 'problem' is that ATP is written to compile
for many OS, not just DOS. Most of them 'stream' data and ATP
does a byte by byte analysis of the data when wrapping lines. 

Those who use third party wordwrap often set their choice of
symbol to use no 'whitespace'. A greater-than with no space
character after it confuses my ATP wordwrap. 

This is complicated when you are trying to 'stack' the symbols
to indicate first person, the reply, the second reply to the
first two, etc. and reading a byte by byte stream of data to
boot! 

ATP holds the leading initials and greater-than symbols, wraps
the lines and puts the initials and symbols back at the start
of each line (when it can). With no whitespace this often goes
haywire. 

Add that many like to add 'grins' with greater-than /
lesser-than symbols and you can imagine what a mess this
wrapping can become. 

I had anticipated that users would 'respect' the choice of the
greater-than symbol and NOT use it within their text but have
since discovered that this is not the case. 

I have not, as yet, found a workaround for users who want to
use no whitespace and use greater-than symbols ad hoc within
FIDO text. I edit those messages by hand (here) and grumble. 

>
>        ,                                        ,
>      o/      Charles.Angelich  - DOS Ghost       \o       ,
>       __o/
>     / >  www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/faf/  < \   __\__
 

___ * ATP/16bit 2.31 * 
... Xmas Music! www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/faf/snowsc.htm

--- Maximus/2 3.01
* Origin: COMM Port OS/2 juge.com 204.89.247.1 (281) 980-9671 (1:106/2000)
SEEN-BY: 24/903 106/2000 120/544 123/500 400/300 633/260 262 267 270 285
SEEN-BY: 640/954 770/215 771/4020 774/605 2432/200
@PATH: 106/2000 123/500 774/605 633/260 285 267

SOURCE: echomail via fidonet.ozzmosis.com

Email questions or comments to sysop@ipingthereforeiam.com
All parts of this website painstakingly hand-crafted in the U.S.A.!
IPTIA BBS/MUD/Terminal/Game Server List, © 2025 IPTIA Consulting™.