Louis Aubree,

07-Oct-99 10:19:00, Louis Aubree wrote to Peter French
          Subject: Long Lines

 LA> Hi Peter,

 LA> Do you like reading messages looking like this?

 LA> ( I quote your message to Ian Moote on 1999-08-29 at 00:00 )

Actually it was 28-Sept-99.

-- 

I went back and looked at the original msg from Peter French and it is perfect
without any sharks tooth hard carriage returns like you quoted.

The problem you are complaining about is caused in your software not the
software of those originating msgs with 78 - 80 character lines.  You should
change the settings in your software or change to better software.

What you are implying is that you are "My son John" marching out of step, and
expect everyone else to march to your step, by changing their correct setups
to your expectations.

Personally I don't like reading short lines and having to PgDn more frequently
than I would have to if the original msg used 78 - 80 characters.  I happen to
use 78 characters because I think that is easy to read and see that the end of
the line is not truncated.  Leaving a lot of blank space at the end of every
line so that the quoted text does not wrap is not a real solution, since as
soon as it is quoted again, then readers like your's will still screw it up.

There was a time several years ago when some BBS software (Wild Cat IIRC) used
to truncate the end of long quoted lines.  Rather than the author fixing his
bug he wanted everyone else to shorten their original lines.  IMO that was a
rather stupid attitude considering the Fidonet specs.  Anyway I obliged for a
while.  Now there is plenty of good BBS software and Fidonet readers/editors
available.

My attitude has changed.  I'm fed up with compensating for bugs in someone
else's software.  Maybe that is due to the predominance of Microsoft software
that is shoved out the door while it is still Alpha version.  Now I expect
others to either get their bugs fixed, or put up with and shut up about the
bugs they insist on keeping.  IMO they have a choice to use good software that
doesn't have those bugs.

To put it simply I don't have to read msgs like you quoted when the original
msg is formatted within Fidonet specs.  So I have nothing to complain about.
Except I'm not going to change my proper settings to your lower expectations.

     Thanks and Good Luck,        Andy Roberts
                                  andy@shentel.net
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