NB> Mark, this is one of the few times I will quote an entire message,

understood...

 NB> but it's only to show you that whatever reader/editor you're using
 NB> is what messed the quote up. But it might very well not be the
 NB> reader/editor you're using, either.

yes.. the one that caused the mess above (which i've removed for this
reply) is not the one i use... it was already messed up when i wrote my
reply... it is also messed up like that in the RAW PKT file that delivered
it to my system...

i will also note that i specifically did not attempt to manually fix the
quote in question as i tend to do most of the time... there were just too
many missing parts for me to remember them all and i don't have the
capability on this point system to go back in another reader to view the
original when i'm writing a reply...

 NB> Mainly, this is so you have a little more knowledge in the argument
 NB> involving you, Carol, and the others in another echo.

understood... and GoodOnYou for trying to understand what's going
on and why...

 NB> The original reply from Richard seemed to have cut the text off at
 NB> the end of the lines. 

yup... that's due to the editor he used... it creates what is/was known as
chainsaw replies... basically, it doesn't word wrap and reflow the existing
quotes... instead it chops off text at its line limit and then quotes
that... this is a very old problem and it indicative of what some term as
"lazy coding"...

on important item to note is that one set of quotes has two leading spaces
which throws off other quoting software such that they don't recognize the
quote... this is another coding problem... one that can be handled by
peeking at the characters specifically looking for the '>' character and
adjusting the quote and reflow as needed... but this goes back to that
"lazy coding" thing ;)

 NB> Maybe what was cut off was actually saved in RAW format, 

"RAW format"??

 NB> but cut off to fit in the 80 or less characters per line? 

yes, exactly...

 NB> If this is the case, it's probably one of Synchronet's external 
 NB> editors (can't really blame Synchronet, as there is no "default 
 NB> editor" for it).

agreed... this was the point of contention a while back when the synchronet
maintainer, rob swindel, was "brought" into the FIDONEWS echo
when i and others were discussing this specific problem in there... that
discussion, as it were, then branched off to synchronet's MSGID stuff in
which is creates a MSGID for messages that do not have a MSGID... sadly rob
left before he saw my reply to him with the evidence of /that/ particular
problem... at least there was never any acknowledgement of it by anyone
involved in that discussion... i've been keeping an eye on the synchronet
CVS/SVN/GIT/whatever and have not really seen anything that would indicate
a fix for either problem... not until maybe in the last day or so but i
haven't followed up on that either...

as for synchronet not having a "default" editor, is there not
something that does come with it for those system that want to run bare
naked synchronet as delivered? all of the bbs software that i've even seen
has had some sort of default editor, whether internal or external... it was
there in the initial package and the editor used when there was no other...
the bbs software i use, granted it is a beta that desperately needs an
update that is unlikely to come forth, has a line editor as its default
editor... this line editor is akin to the old DOS edlin tool...

 NB> Anyways, I know I'm more or less continuing the beating of a dead
 NB> horse here, but figured I'd mention what I noticed.

i don't have a problem with it... i am always trying to help others see and
understand the problems that are visible out there... i've never touted
anything i run as being completely fault-free or perfect, either... but
that gets missed, too, and in some cases, like what happened previously,
some try to use it as a weapon against me... oh well... they can fix their
software whereas i cannot... not without a huge alteration in my production
system which has been in operation since the late '80's or so...

)\/(ark

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