Steve Turner writes:

Yeah, but now I have to scroll vertically to see the whole post, and
my uber-wide, ultra-fancy, 24" LCD monitor has 30% text on the left
side of the screen and 70% empty whitespace on the right! And surely
you're not telling me your newsreader is so old and crusty it doesn't
support that new-fangled thing called "word wrap"... ?

:-)


You suck! :-)

Some people are reading this on a netbook......

dpb writes:

Steve Turner wrote:
...
telling me your newsreader is so old and crusty it doesn't support
that new-fangled thing called "word wrap"... ?
...

nntp protocol is line length 80 characters

You mean netiquette.

It has to do with the early computer (TTY) consoles/telex machines only
being able to display/print 80 characters per line.

CYA
Steve

Stephen Quinn wrote:
It has to do with the early computer (TTY) consoles/telex machines only
being able to display/print 80 characters per line.

CYA
Steve

Yes, I used those myself when I was a "computer operator" back in the
days before Apples and IBM PCs. I understand all the reasons why one
might want to restrict line lengths to 80 characters (I still do it
myself in my C source code), but NNTP doesn't impose such a restriction
and there is little reason to manually do so in this day and age. I
would argue that introducing explicit line endings into otherwise
free-flowing paragraphs of text creates as many problems as it solves.

--
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(From a Shiner Bock billboard I saw in Austin some years ago)
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Jack Stein wrote:
Leon wrote:
"Jack Stein" wrote in message

It was a fun post. Next time though, use a few line feeds... they
are cheap and are easier on these old eyes...

Line Feeds?

Line feeds separate paragraphs or sentences. You need two of them at
the end of a paragraph in order to get some white space, breaking up
long posts making them easier to read. Like this:

There is no compelling reason I can see to worry too much about when to
make these separations either, just that too much typing without space
makes it harder to follow along on long posts, and spacing like this
makes it easier to edit replies. Often, if I get too wordy I'll go back
and stick in some line feeds (white space).

Your post was long and with no white space my first impulse is to skip
the whole thing. Once I started reading it, it was a good read and well
written, but the white space makes it more inviting (too me, anyway)
than a page[s] of text with no white space...

Ah; Jack, you're talking about line feeds in different places than Pat
was. You're simply asking Leon to use multiple paragraphs in place of
one big one.

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Leon wrote:
"Jack Stein" wrote in message

It was a fun post. Next time though, use a few line feeds... they are
cheap and are easier on these old eyes...

Line Feeds?

Line feeds separate paragraphs or sentences. You need two of them at
the end of a paragraph in order to get some white space, breaking up
long posts making them easier to read. Like this:

There is no compelling reason I can see to worry too much about when to
make these separations either, just that too much typing without space
makes it harder to follow along on long posts, and spacing like this
makes it easier to edit replies. Often, if I get too wordy I'll go back
and stick in some line feeds (white space).

Your post was long and with no white space my first impulse is to skip
the whole thing. Once I started reading it, it was a good read and well
written, but the white space makes it more inviting (too me, anyway)
than a page[s] of text with no white space...

--
Jack
Using FREE News Server: http://Motzarella.org
http://jbstein.com

"Steve Turner" wrote in message
...

Ah; Jack, you're talking about line feeds in different places than Pat
was. You're simply asking Leon to use multiple paragraphs in place of one
big one.



THERE WERE "2" paragraphs. LOL

I was simply trying to make his a "wee bit" more
readable. Mine are short because I use a very wide
screen that many folks do not have.

Just for the record, most people outside the
computer world have no idea what a LF is.



Jack Stein wrote:

At any rate, looking at your message, the line lengths are perfect for
me, Pats are too short, and I think mine are too long... when I read my
own posts. Messing with all this stuff always gives me a headache:-)

Steve Turner wrote:
Jack Stein wrote:

Line feeds separate paragraphs or sentences. You need two of them at
the end of a paragraph in order to get some white space, breaking up
long posts making them easier to read. Like this:

Ah; Jack, you're talking about line feeds in different places than Pat
was. You're simply asking Leon to use multiple paragraphs in place of
one big one.

Not sure what Pat was speaking of? He added white space double line
feeds between paragraphs, to which I'm speaking, but he also put
explicit line feeds to minimize line lengths as well. I think your
reader should manage the line lengths rather than force others to read
your line lengths.

At any rate, looking at your message, the line lengths are perfect for
me, Pats are too short, and I think mine are too long... when I read my
own posts. Messing with all this stuff always gives me a headache:-)

I know I always try to edit my messages for readability. I doubt I'm
always successful, and don't mind constructive criticism giving or
getting:-)

My biggest complaint about newsgroups are it's readers. 20 years ago,
in Fidonet, the readers were super nice. I used to use one written by
Nick Night, can't remember the name of it, but it worked better than the
rest of this stuff. I use Thunderbird now, it's ok at best, but nothing
like the one Nick wrote.
--
Jack
Using FREE News Server: http://Motzarella.org
http://jbstein.com

Jack Stein wrote:


My biggest complaint about newsgroups are it's readers. 20 years ago,
in Fidonet, the readers were super nice. I used to use one written by
Nick Night, can't remember the name of it, but it worked better than the
rest of this stuff. I use Thunderbird now, it's ok at best, but nothing
like the one Nick wrote.

I remember when "Blue Wave" first came out it was the cat's meow!

Next you'll start talking about ZMH and *******.



--
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Last update: 10/22/08
KarlC@ (the obvious)

Pat Barber wrote:
Just for the record, most people outside the
computer world have no idea what a LF is.

You mean I should have used Carriage Return:-)

--
Jack
Using FREE News Server: http://Motzarella.org
http://jbstein.com

Swingman wrote:
Jack Stein wrote:

My biggest complaint about newsgroups are it's readers. 20 years ago,
in Fidonet, the readers were super nice. I used to use one written by
Nick Night, can't remember the name of it, but it worked better than
the rest of this stuff. I use Thunderbird now, it's ok at best, but
nothing like the one Nick wrote.

I remember when "Blue Wave" first came out it was the cat's meow!

Next you'll start talking about ZMH and *******.

Yes, Zone Mail Hour... I ran Opus, and it had one message one file
format for mail. Other BBS systems had a database method for mail. Opus
would create havoc with the archaic DOS file system because of a zillion
files being created and deleted every day. Even with the data base
method, DOS disk fragmentation was a big issue. When I started running
OS/2 and the HPFS file system, fragmentation was non-existent. A large
number of sysops had no clue...

--
Jack
Using FREE News Server: http://Motzarella.org
http://jbstein.com