Sabahattin, Rich Irwin's original question regarding the feasibility of a searchable Braillenote List archive has drifted into a discussion of line wrap. Hence the change of subject in this very response to your earlier post. I have changed the subject line for Line Wrap posts
From: RE: [Braillenote] Full Text Search Archive To: Line Wrap Issue (Subject Change) Lets use this Line Wrap thread for line wrap discussion. Now regarding line wrap: I work on the Windows platform at home and at work. What is the impact of the line wrap issue on me? Suppose that I use my Braillenote to compose and mail an e-mail to the Braillenote list. Will the recipients having Braillnotes then see a jumbled, garbled message from me on the Braille display, or on embossed Braille? Will the recipients using PCs see a jumbled, garbled message from me, on the Braille display, or on embossed Braille, or on printed output? Sincerely, Jerry Weinger Off List responses: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: Sabahattin Gucukoglu [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 06, 2004 1:03 PM To: Braillenote List Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Full Text Search Archive Hi, On 6 Aug 2004 at 10:27, Weinger, Jerrold (DSCP) spoke, thus: > I am a bit puzzled. None of the Braillenote List e-mails in my mailbox > fits this description. Indeed, all of these e-mails are formatted. I use > the Braillenote BT 32 having Keysoft Version 5.1 Build 22. I Also use > Microsoft Outlook at one location, and Microsoft Outlook Express at another > location. Using Microsoft Outlook, a test print of a randomly selected > e-mail from this list prints perfectly on a laser printer. First of all, all three email clients in common share the characteristic that paragraphs are, internally, reformatted as lines with soft linebreaks inserted automatically at your selected margin. Therefore, unless corruption occurs before you retrieve the mail message, as at your transport or that of another network which relayed the list mail to you, you will appear to have no difficulties reading email produced by the BrailleNote on any Windows-based and non-compliant client. Windows has always used paragraph format for its text files - this is true even for Notepad and Wordpad, if you don't force a new line, there is no new line. It was true for Outlook Express for some time, but it isn't anymore. Printing, likewise, is likely to appear correct because of your mailer or word processor's automatic wrapping features. However, these are soft breaks, not hard breaks. Look at the message with your BrailleNote in editing mode, or cursor through. Note the "New line" (CR/LF) appears only at the end of each paragraph, the lines separating the paragraph are divided by "Line breaks". If you were to take that flat file and display it on an 80-by-25 terminal with no wrapping capability, the mail would look attrocious. Last but not least, the randomly-selected email you printed may not have been generated by a BrailleNote. The problem I have lies at my transport, which correctly limits the line length of the email. In doing so, it introduces CR/LF pairs, which my mailer, which by default doesn't wrap but which I've chosen to make wrap and guess at where lines should really be ending, will simply substitute newlines with spaces (correctly since the newlines shouldn't be occurring there), separating the words where splits occur. Ann is less fortunate, and her mailer doesn't wrap at all unless told to, resulting in almost complete illegibility. From the viewpoint of standards, though, this is the absolute correct thing to do, since all mail should fit into a terminal display when written correctly. > Would you send me, off list, an example of what you are describing? If you would like, sure - when I next stumble across such a message, I will forward it on as an attachment to those who want a goosy at it. Would anyone else like to see what their mail to me looks like? In case the description is sufficient - simply take the text file resulting from saving a message written by a BrailleNote user, count to the 998th character along a given line, so long as a newline isn't encountered, and hit newline (enter) there, regardless of where it is (including mid-word). That is how is available via POP3. If you have GNU fmt or Pegasus Mail or another intelligent formatter, process the file so that line lengths are estimated. You have there a reasonable simulation of what I see. Cheers, Sabahattin -- Thought for the day: Bagpipes (n): an octopus wearing a kilt. Sabahattin Gucukoglu Phone: +44 20 7,502-1615 Mobile: +44 7986 053399 http://www.sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/ Email/MSN: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
