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From: "alexander koryagin" <koryagin@erec.ru>

F2EP
Hi, Ardith Hinton! How are you?
on Tuesday, 03 of April, I read your message to alexander koryagin
about "Program Quoter - you are very welcomed"


(I reply in the same format I've got it - the width is 79 symbols).

 ak>> I'd like to hear your opinion - what is better.

 AH> I would treat quoted material differently from whatever comment(s)  I  may
 AH> have chosen to add. #1 works with everyday prose, if one is not quoting...
 AH> other people's software will adjust the  line  length  as  needed  to  fit
 AH> within the space available on their computer screen.

But note, that quoted lines are, very often,  the bulk of a message.  You often
add just a line or two.  So,  if you cannot see a  formatted  quoting  well  it
becomes useless to use not-quoted paragraphs in form of long single  lines.  In
short,  your reader program must be able to work with formatted paragraphs.  If
your narrow screen doesn't allow to shown formatted lines  (for  instance  like
these,  formatted by 79  symbols)  properly,  your  reader  must  unformat  the
formatted text and show it on its narrow screen. It's easy IMHO.

<skipped>
 ak>> variant #1 1. Paragraphs consist of one long line. Like this (and yours):

 ak>> I've made a very useful utility "Quoter." It is a  freeware  program  and
 ak>> designed for the people who love participate in  discussions  in  USENET,
 ak>> FIDONET groups and also in web forums.


 AH> Since you began this paragraph  with  "ak>"  my  computer  recognized  the
 AH> entire paragraph as a quotation & added your initials to subsequent lines.
 AH> The author's intent is not in  doubt,  although  the  placement  of  "ak>"
 AH> varies.

 AH> My computer also decided to put the  word  "USENET"  on  the  third  line,
 AH> probably because when left to its own devices  timEd  (my  message  editor
 AH> program) limits the length of quoted lines to 72 characters. By typing the
 AH> ">" yourself at  the  beginning  of  the  paragraph  you  were  in  effect
 AH> instructing timEd that you wanted to take charge  of  the  decision-making
 AH> about line length,  whereupon timEd did  its  best  to  cram  as  much  as
 AH> possible into the first line before reaching my screen limit.  The  screen
 AH> limit forced a line wrap.  And then timEd reverted to doing its own  thing
 AH> because you'd offered no further information about what you were expecting
 AH> it to do with all the stuff it couldn't fit into the first line.

Many people complain in the same way.  Their sofware cannot treat a  long  line
quoting well.  Acctually now there is a sort of compromise:  people send quoted
paragraphs as short lines, and they send their own writing as a long line.

 ak>> 2. in the second variant I format all the lines to read them better:

 ak>> I've made a very useful utility "Quoter." It is a  freeware  program  and
 ak>> designed for the people who love participate in  discussions  in  USENET,
 ak>> FIDONET groups and also in web forums.


 AH> AFAIC,  this is easier to read & more esthetically attractive  because  of
 AH> the consistency in the spacing.  If not all the lines  are  precisely  the
 AH> same length I'd rather see some minor discrepacies  at  the  right  margin
 AH> than a clumsy attempt to adjust the spacing between words and/or  letters.
 AH> The idea is not to distract the reader either by thoughtless untidiness or
 AH> by compulsive neatness.

But judging by your justified message you like a formatted  text  justified  at
the right margin?  Don't you?  Well, I like it too.  But most of people don't
have software capable to produce  justified  messages.  Also  in  windows  many
program don't use monospacious fonts (althoughy they can set up such a font  if
they like).

<skipped>
 AH> al author.  I limit my own quotes to +/- 65 characters,  in order to allow
 AH> for the possibility that somebody who has more  than  two  initials  (e.g.
 AH> "ARS" or "MvdV" might want to comment and leave enough space  for  others
 AH> to add "-> - >" or ">>>>>" before I give up & resort to using the "(N)ext"
 AH> key.... ;-)

But in the message I am replying to you formatted and justified  your  text  by
the 79 symbols margin.  Probably,  some people will see broken  lines  if  they
don't have a cool editor (like Quoter, for instance). ;-)

[...Why am I so kind? I haven't enough malice for all]
Bye Ardith!
Alexander (yAlexKo[]yandex.ru) + 2:5020/2140.91
fido7.english-tutor 2012 



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