On 2013-02-26, Rob <[email protected]> wrote: > Richard B. Gilbert <[email protected]> wrote: >> I think that many hardware terminals e.g. VT100 or VT320 do not handle >> long lines well. >> >> I can't see any reason why anyone would need to send more than 132 >> characters in one line of text! >> >> You may have noted that books, magazines and newspapers limit their line >> lengths. >> >> There are sound reasons for that! So PLEASE take your nine hundred >> character line and break it up! > > The advantage of leaving the wrapping to the receiver is that everyone > can define their own line length and wrap the text into that space using > the algorithm they like best.
The advantage of breaking up your text into readable line lengths is that you are far less likely to piss off people who might be able to help you solve your problem. Those whose reader formats long lines nicely might be very slightly annoyed that the text does not conform to their preference of 170 charcters in length, but will not find the text less readable for all that. Those, whose reader does not properly flow lines, will appreciate the effort and have one less thing get in the way of their thinking about the content, rather than the form. Sounds like win-win to me. Of course if your purpose in posting is to take a stand for individual liberty to do as you like, and you do not care if anyone reads or thinks about your post, then you can do as you like. However, most posters do not fall into this category, and are, in fact, chagrined to discover that their mailing procedure does get in the way of their post's content being thought about. _______________________________________________ questions mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ntp.org/listinfo/questions
