-=> Quoting Maurice Kinal to Nancy Backus on 04 Nov 09  14:08:44 <=-

 MK> This is very interesting and I've learned more from this message of
 MK> yours than reading all the so-called documentation of offline formats.
 MK> Go figure eh? 

Sometimes there's just no substitute for hands-on... ;)

 MK> This turns out to be better;
 MK>> www.thesun.co.uk/.../Vote-to-say-whether-you-think-going
 MK>> -topless-on-the-beach-is-ok-or-not.html - Similar
 MK> than this;
 MK>> www.thesun.co.uk/.../Vote-to-say-whether-you-think-going-topless-on-the
 MK>> -beach-i s-ok-or-not.html 
 MK> However I am not sure if allowing whatever the BBS thinks should
 MK> happen with splitting long lines and me preformatting will really make
 MK> a difference.  How about these next lines? 
 MK> www.thesun.co.uk/.../Vote-to-say-whether-you-think-going
 MK> -topless-on-the-beach-is-ok-or-not.html

Only change I made was to put another > after your initials to designate
which was quoted from your original message and which is from your
reply (and to take out empty lines).  The first and third look identical
to me.

 MK> Offhand I doubt that will make any difference but we'll see for
 MK> ourselves. I am betting your offline dealie will put a space between
 MK> 'going' and '-topless' but maybe not.

Apparently not.  I can't check for spaces in the offline reader, only in
my text editor for the reply... but in here, there's no extra space
added between 'going' and '-topless' although the latter starts the next
line...  except for the space between the quote letters and the message.

If I were to try to use the URL, I'd hope I'd have enough sense to put
it all back together anyway (and take out any extraneous spaces)...  :)

 > I haven't a clue how web apps work, as I'm not usually using
 > them.  :)

 MK> Excellent plan methinks.  Obviously another dimension of compatibilty
 MK> eh? :-) 

Apparently...  

 > The Bluewave reader makes all lines fit onto the one screen,

 MK> Please define a screen, especially width character-wise.
 
80 characters wide.  18 lines available in the message area.  I just
counted before coming into Reply... :)

 > obviously has some sort of built-in wrap.

 MK> Probably a fixed width.

Either 79 or 80 characters.  A word that falls on/over the line gets put
to the next line, so it recognizes blank spaces.  It may be 80, but your
message didn't have any words that went right to the edge of the screen,
the closest had a space after it yet, so it may only be 79...  I'm
pretty sure that when it pulls in the quote, it is using the same
criteria, just adding 5 spaces to the front of the line, the " MK> ".

 > MicroEMACS (for DOS).  It has a wrap you can set and implement
 > as desired...  so that is being used as I type... :)

 MK> Very interesting.  I wonder how close it resembles the Linux version.

My Wizard tells me that except the addition in mine of function key
macros, it's pretty much identical to the Unix/Linux version.  He was
using it at work with a VAX, and introduced me to the DOS version when
he set up our home computer at the very beginning.

 MK> Personally I prefer vi but am receptive to a pared down version of
 MK> emacs. The full meal deal is far too bloated for it's own good
 MK> methinks. Mind you I could say the same about vi clones such as vim
 MK> which is what I am using to type this particular message. 

The Wizard says that vi is good too... I know nothing at all about it,
since this is the only one I've really ever used, except WordStar on my
sister's computer before we got ours set up at home.

 MK> No official offline thingy yet as it is virtually impossible to find a
 MK> suitable internetted BBS that can handle the usual tcpip networking
 MK> apps. Janis' BBS is the closest I can find that has a shot at making
 MK> this work but at the moment I can't figure out how to get it to create
 MK> other offline packets other than text, which is okay with me.  However
 MK> I am currently using both telnet, ftp and http to pull it off.  I need
 MK> a telnet connection for setting user based configurations and message
 MK> markers, then ftp to fetch the offline packet, and http for posting
 MK> the reply. 

Ok, I understand the telnet for the setting configs... but never have
done anything with ftp or http for messages.  It looks like you are
doing it the hard way... a real offline reader/door combination makes it
easy...  BW is DOS, but if you've got a DOS emulator you'd be able to
use it in Linux.  There also probably is a linux QWK offline reader, and
a QWK door...

 MK> I tried telnet for replies but noticed some weirdness there
 MK> and didn't save it since I was unsure that the final result would be
 MK> as it should be. If I knew for sure what the uploaded message(s)
 MK> format and expected filename was then ftp could potentially do it all
 MK> except the user based configurations part.  The messaging markers seem

I suppose you could experiment with it, in messages to me...   The
Wizard just said something about you'd need to have no line feeds, just
carriage returns, just as if you were typing the text into the bbs's
editor, when you upload the text in telnet...

 MK> to be 100% on their own but I like the idea of being able to reset
 MK> them whenever there might be a need.  Possible a perl based telnet
 MK> thingy might resolve that but I am keeping that idea in reserve for
 MK> now. 

No clue on that... ;)

 MK> As is this seems to work but it isn't user friendly to say the least.
 MK> However it does have the best shot near as I can tell from my
 MK> investigations of internetted BBS's. 

Have you tried telnetting to Holodeck?  holo.homeip.net  is the address.
He has a dual setup, running Synchronet on the front side, and you can
get to a Telegard bbs through the doors menu.  I usually use the
Telegard side, so I can use the Bluewave door and have native BW packets
for messages and replies.  For a little while, he was running Wildcat,
but there was a problem that came up and he went back to Sync/TG.

ttyl       neb

... Windows: Ultimate memory manager.  It manages to use it all.
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.20