Re: Tear lines
 
> There is no FTS-xx document specifying a restriction on the length
> of a tearline.

Quite true, however the powers that be in Zone 2 adopted EchoPol1 and claim
that any Echo on the of the Zone 2 Regional Backbones must comply with it,
including the following two clauses:

     b)   Origin lines are limited to 79 characters including the
     required  ending   of  a   proper  network   address   (i.e.
     Zone:Net/Node.Point with zone and point being optional).

     c)   Tear lines  are limited  to 35 characters including the
     required "---  " lead-in.   These may ONLY contain packer or
     editor program  identification.    Tear  lines  for  message
     editors are  discouraged.  If an editor adds a tear line, it
     should also add an origin line to avoid multiple tear lines.

However, common practice seems to show that this is not strictly enforced,
otherwise Echoes like NET_DEV would not be available on the Backbone!

Just another case of the absurdity of adopting policies in one Zone that are
neither adopted nor enforcable in other Zones!

Neil J Marshall.

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