Paul D Smith wrote:
"John Rumm" wrote in message
o.uk...

On 30/01/2013 12:51, Paul D Smith wrote:

nothing!

(if you post under someone else's signature line, most news software
will trim off your post completely when replying)

That's quite amusing. I wonder how they figure out what a signature
line is? As someone who writes software for a living I'm always amused
to see new ways for software authors have helpfully shot themselves in
the foot. As far as I am aware (and "News" is not my field so I'm ready
to be additionally educated) a News item is simply text, with no implied
interpretation of any part of the item.

A standards compliant newsreader looks for a line in the body of the
post which contains only "-- (line feed)" (ASCII codes
&#x2D,&#x2D,&#x20,&#0A, if I've read the table correctly. ). It then
assumes that any lines after this are a signature. It will then,
according to user preference or possibly as hard coded, either strip
these lines from the reply when composing, or ignore it.
--
Tciao for Now!

John.