Re: [abcusers] On parsers again - Outlook PHP

2004-08-15 Thread Christian M. Cepel
John Chambers wrote:
Since ABC is widely used to send tunes via email, ABC ends  up  being
embedded inside messages in lots of other formats. It's fairly common
for this to garble the ABC,  as  the  encoding  software  is  usually
debugged  only  with  ordinary  (English)  text.   Decoding is fairly
haphazard, and it will be  common  for  your  software  to  encounter
partly-decoded email messages that contain partly-decoded tunes.
The sensible thing might be to just throw up your hands and refuse to
deal  with  it.   But you have a lot of companies working on a lot of
email software doing their best to make life difficult for you.
 

Ran into this nonsense mailing a gal a php proggie I had written for her 
to convert medline source references into CSV txt file...

She (unfortunately everyone on campus who doesn't know any better) is 
using exchange.  Finally had to send her a zip.

lt;?php
and so on and so forth.
--
||
Christian Marcus Cepel   | And the wrens have returned 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] icq:12384980 | are nesting; In the hollow of
371 Crown Point, Columbia, MO| that oak where his heart once
65203-2202 573.999.2370  | had been; And he lifts up his
Computer Support Specialist, Sr. | arms in a blessing; For being
University of Missouri-Columbia  | born again. --Rich Mullins
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Re: [abcusers] On parsers again - Outlook PHP

2004-08-15 Thread John Chambers
Christian M. Cepel writes:
| John Chambers wrote:
|
| Since ABC is widely used to send tunes via email, ABC ends  up  being
| embedded inside messages in lots of other formats. It's fairly common
| for this to garble the ABC,  as  the  encoding  software  is  usually
| debugged  only  with  ordinary  (English)  text.
...
| Ran into this nonsense mailing a gal a php proggie I had written for her
| to convert medline source references into CSV txt file...
|
| She (unfortunately everyone on campus who doesn't know any better) is
| using exchange.  Finally had to send her a zip.
|
| lt;?php
|
| and so on and so forth.

Yeah; in this list we notice how email software damages ABC, but it's
a well-known problem in most programming languages. Back before 1990,
when most email software was written by programmers for  programmers,
it  was  less common (though it did happen).  But then the commercial
folks jumped onto this new Internet thing, and they decided to  scrap
all that techie stuff and write user-friendly software. The results
were generally programmer-hostile.

It effects everyone who tries to use email to send anything  that  is
formatted differently from English. In ABC, a string like A2B4c2 will
be treated as six tokens by most intelligent  email  software,  and
newlines may be inserted anywhere. When one is inserted before one of
the numbers, the result usually doesn't work  correctly,  since  most
ABC  software doesn't know what to do with a number at the start of a
line/staff.

But this has been at least a minor headache for programmers since  we
first  had  email  back  in the 70's.  Despite attempts to make email
standards that prevent such damage, the problem is probably worse now
than ever.

What's funny is all the software that wraps lines at 80 or 72  chars.
This is referred to in the literature as the symptom of a punch card
mind.  How many computer users nowadays have ever  seen  or  used  a
punch  card?   I  have  a  couple  in a box as souvenirs.  That 72 is
especially bizarre.  How many people these days could even  tell  you
where that strange number comes from?  But lots of software does it.

I guess you could call it a tradition ...


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RE: [abcusers] On parsers again - Outlook PHP

2004-08-15 Thread Richard Walker
How many computer users nowadays have ever  seen  or  used
a punch  card?   I  have  a  couple  in a box as souvenirs.
That 72 is especially bizarre.  How many people these days
could even  tell  you where that strange number comes from?
But lots of software does it.

I used the columns after 72 for sequence numbers so I could
use the sorter to put a deck of cards back in order if
(when) I dropped them.  Up to 72, I used for FORTRAN code.
lol  ... and on a good day I could get two or three runs at
the school computer.


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Re: [abcusers] On parsers again - Outlook PHP

2004-08-15 Thread Christian M. Cepel
John Chambers wrote:
Christian M. Cepel writes:
| John Chambers wrote:
|
| Since ABC is widely used to send tunes via email, ABC ends  up  being
| embedded inside messages in lots of other formats. It's fairly common
| for this to garble the ABC,  as  the  encoding  software  is  usually
| debugged  only  with  ordinary  (English)  text.
...
| Ran into this nonsense mailing a gal a php proggie I had written for her
| to convert medline source references into CSV txt file...
|
| She (unfortunately everyone on campus who doesn't know any better) is
| using exchange.  Finally had to send her a zip.
|
| lt;?php
|
| and so on and so forth.
Yeah; in this list we notice how email software damages ABC, but it's
a well-known problem in most programming languages. Back before 1990,
when most email software was written by programmers for  programmers,
it  was  less common (though it did happen).  But then the commercial
folks jumped onto this new Internet thing, and they decided to  scrap
all that techie stuff and write user-friendly software. The results
were generally programmer-hostile.
It effects everyone who tries to use email to send anything  that  is
formatted differently from English. In ABC, a string like A2B4c2 will
be treated as six tokens by most intelligent  email  software,  and
newlines may be inserted anywhere. When one is inserted before one of
the numbers, the result usually doesn't work  correctly,  since  most
ABC  software doesn't know what to do with a number at the start of a
line/staff.
But this has been at least a minor headache for programmers since  we
first  had  email  back  in the 70's.  Despite attempts to make email
standards that prevent such damage, the problem is probably worse now
than ever.
What's funny is all the software that wraps lines at 80 or 72  chars.
This is referred to in the literature as the symptom of a punch card
mind.  How many computer users nowadays have ever  seen  or  used  a
punch  card?   I  have  a  couple  in a box as souvenirs.  That 72 is
especially bizarre.  How many people these days could even  tell  you
where that strange number comes from?  But lots of software does it.
I guess you could call it a tradition ...
To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: 
http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
 

I'd just like to kill the makers of Eudora for setting the default 
settings of their mail software to UUencode attachments but still send 
them out with the original mime-type.My boss would send me stuff via 
eudora all the time.. say a word doc... download it.. open it in word 
(hey.   the mime-type  extension are correct) only to see a 644 begin 
line.  Have to ftp it up to unix, uudecode, ftp it back and then open it.

--
||
Christian Marcus Cepel   | And the wrens have returned 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] icq:12384980 | are nesting; In the hollow of
371 Crown Point, Columbia, MO| that oak where his heart once
65203-2202 573.999.2370  | had been; And he lifts up his
Computer Support Specialist, Sr. | arms in a blessing; For being
University of Missouri-Columbia  | born again. --Rich Mullins
To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html