Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-16 Thread Dr . H . Nikolaus Schaller
Summary answer...

Am 15.08.2010 um 00:58 schrieb steve:

 
 Hi Steve,
 
 Hi Niklaus (not in Zürich toniht?)

What important event is (was) there tonight?

 Anyway, may studies have shown that the reader begins to be less
 concentrated when lines exceed 80 caracters, that's *my* main point.

I completely agree with that. Newspapers come in columns. Since they
were invented 200 years ago. For good reasons.

But I did not expect that any mail reader could have such a problem formatting
long lines to read in small columns. IMHO any modern mail viewer should be
able to do that.

 Bad MUA, change MUA (mutt maybe?) 

I have checked what mutt is and I am impressed what can be done with the
VT100 methaphor. But it looks as recommending to replace a Porsche by a
refurbished truck because it is more flexible...

One thing made me wonder. Did you correctly use all mutt settings? I have
e.g. found:

 3.238. smart_wrap
 
 Type: boolean
 Default: yes
 
 Controls the display of lines longer than the screen width in the internal 
 pager. If set, long lines are wrapped at a word boundary. If unset, lines are 
 simply wrapped at the screen edge. Also see the $markers variable.

If I understand that correctly (I have never used or configured mutt), it
is just a matter of correct settings on the receiver's side and the 'reader'
component.

But let's stop this discussion which is quite philosophical/fundamental
(in several aspects) since we have found a simple solution after knowing
the problem.

BR,
Nikolaus
___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-16 Thread Matthias Apitz
El día Monday, August 16, 2010 a las 09:58:50AM +0200, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller 
escribió:

 One thing made me wonder. Did you correctly use all mutt settings? I have
 e.g. found:
 
  3.238. smart_wrap
  
  Type: boolean
  Default: yes
  
  Controls the display of lines longer than the screen width in the internal 
  pager. If set, long lines are wrapped at a word boundary. If unset, lines 
  are simply wrapped at the screen edge. Also see the $markers variable.
 
 If I understand that correctly (I have never used or configured mutt), it
 is just a matter of correct settings on the receiver's side and the 'reader'
 component.

Of course, the pager (reader) of Mutt wrapes your very long lines
correctly (i.e. at word boundary) to the line length of the used
terminal, xterm.

But, look how ugly your read lock. I have placed a screen shoot of your
mail here: http://www.unixarea.de/uglyLines.jpg

That's why the RFC of the Netiquette recommends line wrap around column
65 and this is a correct recommendation even today and not just a matter
of taste.

matthias
-- 
Matthias Apitz
t +49-89-61308 351 - f +49-89-61308 399 - m +49-170-4527211
e g...@unixarea.de - w http://www.unixarea.de/
Solidarity with the zionistic pirates of Israel?   Not in my  name!
¿Solidaridad con los piratas sionistas de Israel? ¡No en mi nombre!

___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-15 Thread sam tygier
On 14/08/10 18:42, Gennady Kupava wrote:
 Hi, Nikolaus,

 First, thanks for your work on next generation of free hardware, I hope
 to use it one day. Didn't came to conclusion how my next device should
 look like exactly, and i'm ok with fr so far.

 But about line wrapping - i am using web interface to read community-ml,
 so no way to control my 'client' parameters.

 To get idea how your mail look like in web interface, try this link:

 http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2010-July/062609.html

 I think many people may find your letters this way, and it's really not
 easy to read sometimes.

 Just a note, all this wrapping topic is not really serious problem.

 Gennady.

Can i recommend gmane as a better interface to read mailing lists

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.handhelds.openmoko.community/57269

sam


___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller

Am 13.08.2010 um 22:35 schrieb steve:

 Le 13-08-2010, à 19:45:51 +0200, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller (h...@computer.org) 
 a écrit :
 
 such a thing is quite unlikely to expect from any large phone manufacturer. 
 Even if they open up an existing design. They ususally squeeze every bit out 
 of the design to reduce manufacturing cost and may have very special test 
 procedures. And they may change internals every now and then to improve 
 their production process. I.e. you may get version B4 this week and someone 
 else version C7 in two weeks with differences in the not-documented area.
 
 Nikolaus, couldn't you wrap your lines to something more standard (72 or
 so ?) Thanks, I like reading your prose, but those long lines are really
 irritating.

Hi Steve,

there are different opinions if the 80 char line wrapping of mail is standard 
or some
old-fashioned relict from the 80ies. I have tried to find out what it is but it 
appears
to be a problem with some MUAs not correctly handling RFC 2646.

Here is also some discussion about mailman being responsible or not:

http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-us...@python.org/msg49755.html

which says:

The problem is that prior to Mailman 2.1.10, the format=flowed and
delsp=yes parameters were not preserved in the outgoing message.

I think the OM list uses version 2.1.9  so it could be a bug.

I don't know if my mail client uses these paramters - but it does not have
an option to do line wrapping when sending.

So, wouldn't it be simpler if you reduce the width of your display window?
Your client should then wrap long lines.

BR,
Nikolaus

PS: I have tried to format this mail manually, but it is quite a pain...
___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread Paul Fertser
Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller h...@computer.org writes:
 Am 13.08.2010 um 22:35 schrieb steve:
 Nikolaus, couldn't you wrap your lines to something more standard (72 or
 so ?) Thanks, I like reading your prose, but those long lines are really
 irritating.

 there are different opinions if the 80 char line wrapping of mail is standard 
 or some
 old-fashioned relict from the 80ies. I have tried to find out what it is but 
 it appears
 to be a problem with some MUAs not correctly handling RFC 2646.

Well, i can't really see how format=flowed can make any sense, even
nowadays. I think all sane MUAs go without it by default, and for a
reason: it messes with formatting which is important when you're
sending snippets of code, patches, logs etc.

Probably it's the right time for you to stop following the rules set
by Apple and to start using a better MUA? ;)

 So, wouldn't it be simpler if you reduce the width of your display window?
 Your client should then wrap long lines.

That's not exactly a good option for those of us using tiling window
managers, sorry.

Good luck and happy hacking :)
-- 
Be free, use free (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) software!
mailto:fercer...@gmail.com

___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread Matthias Apitz
El día Saturday, August 14, 2010 a las 08:34:51AM +0200, Dr. H. Nikolaus 
Schaller escribió:

  Nikolaus, couldn't you wrap your lines to something more standard (72 or
  so ?) Thanks, I like reading your prose, but those long lines are really
  irritating.
 
 Hi Steve,
 
 there are different opinions if the 80 char line wrapping of mail is standard 
 or some
 old-fashioned relict from the 80ies. I have tried to find out what it is but 
 it appears
 to be a problem with some MUAs not correctly handling RFC 2646.
 
 Here is also some discussion about mailman being responsible or not:


Hi Nikolaus,

It is the responsibility of your MailUserAgent to wrap lines correctly
around column 72. You are using Apple Mail (2.1081). If this can not do
this, just use another MUA or another system providing correct software.

I'm using Mutt as MUA which in turn can use any editor when writing the
body of the mail. I've set the editor to vim with some magic flags:

set editor=vim \'+set textwidth=72\' \'+syntax match WarningMsg /\\%70v.*/\' 
-i NONE

this puts any char from position 70 in red color and wraps the line if
my typing hits positin 72, but breaks it at the last blank before, i.e.
does not break a word into two pieces.

Just as a hint

matthias
-- 
Matthias Apitz
t +49-89-61308 351 - f +49-89-61308 399 - m +49-170-4527211
e g...@unixarea.de - w http://www.unixarea.de/
Solidarity with the zionistic pirates of Israel?   Not in my  name!
¿Solidaridad con los piratas sionistas de Israel? ¡No en mi nombre!

___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread rixed
Please people stop spamming about line length.
If you MUA is so good then ask it to automatically split long lines :-p


___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread Michael 'Mickey' Lauer
 I don't know if my mail client uses these paramters - but it does not have
 an option to do line wrapping when sending.

Indeed. That's the one thing I really hate when using Mail.app.

Cheers,

-- 
:M:


___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller

Am 14.08.2010 um 10:14 schrieb ri...@happyleptic.org:

 Please people stop spamming about line length.
 If you MUA is so good then ask it to automatically split long lines :-p

I agree that we should not spam - but IMHO this was raised as a serious
problem.

I could live with the idea that everyone uses a MUA that can
wrap lines when reading and displaying long lines. But it appears there
are systems out there that can't (which I did not yet know). 

And I am asked to solve their display problem on the senders side (although
I have much better things to do)...

Am 14.08.2010 um 09:28 schrieb Matthias Apitz:

 El día Saturday, August 14, 2010 a las 08:34:51AM +0200, Dr. H. Nikolaus 
 Schaller escribió:
 
 Nikolaus, couldn't you wrap your lines to something more standard (72 or
 so ?) Thanks, I like reading your prose, but those long lines are really
 irritating.
 
 Hi Steve,
 
 there are different opinions if the 80 char line wrapping of mail is 
 standard or some
 old-fashioned relict from the 80ies. I have tried to find out what it is but 
 it appears
 to be a problem with some MUAs not correctly handling RFC 2646.
 
 Here is also some discussion about mailman being responsible or not:
   
 
 Hi Nikolaus,
 
 It is the responsibility of your MailUserAgent to wrap lines correctly
 around column 72. You are using Apple Mail (2.1081). If this can not do
 this, just use another MUA or another system providing correct software.

Before we start fingerpointing on any client we are using, let's do a little 
more research.

http://mailformat.dan.info/body/linelength.html

quotes RFC 2822 (the successor to RFC 822):

  There are two limits that this standard places on the number of characters 
in a line. Each line of characters MUST be no more than 998 characters, and 
SHOULD be no more than 78 characters, excluding the CRLF.

I.e. lines more than 78 characters are *not* forbidden. From this I conclude
that a mail recipient must cope with that. If not, the client is broken.

And, I conclude that it is not a rule for writing or displaying mails - just
for transferring them over SMTP without making buffer overflows.

Now let's look into the plain code my MUA is sending. Here is an example:

 Hi Steve,
 
 there are different opinions if the 80 char line wrapping of mail is standa=
 rd or some
 old-fashioned relict from the 80ies. I have tried to find out what it is bu=
 t it appears
 to be a problem with some MUAs not correctly handling RFC 2646.
 
 Here is also some discussion about mailman being responsible or not:
 

So Apple Mail *is* correclty sending wrapped lines according to RFC.

I do not excactly know what the rules are to interpret the = signs at the
end of the line. I guess it has to do with 

Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1081)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

A little more search shows this comes from RFC 2045 (MIME) on page 19 (Soft 
Line Breaks).

From this I conclude that the mails my client sends are correct (according
to the standard).

So it appears to me that we are trying to treat a corectly implemented
feature as a bug because there is some habit of expecting that lines
are always *displayed* with wrapping (even if they are sent as non-wrapped
lines using MIME quoted-printable). But I may be missing something.

If somebody can point me to the RFC that *requires* that lines must
be *visibly* wrapped by the sender so that no client ever shows
long lines, I am happy to file a bug report for Apple Mail (wouldn't
be the first one :).

If there is no such RFC, please report bugs for your clients that
don't wrap long (MIME encoded) lines they receive to the width of
the display window.

Nikolaus


___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread Matthias Apitz
El día Saturday, August 14, 2010 a las 03:41:06PM +0200, Dr. H. Nikolaus 
Schaller escribió:

 So Apple Mail *is* correclty sending wrapped lines according to RFC.
 
 I do not excactly know what the rules are to interpret the = signs at the
 end of the line. I guess it has to do with 
 
 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1081)
 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
 
 A little more search shows this comes from RFC 2045 (MIME) on page 19 (Soft 
 Line Breaks).
 
 From this I conclude that the mails my client sends are correct (according
 to the standard).
 
 So it appears to me that we are trying to treat a corectly implemented
 feature as a bug because there is some habit of expecting that lines
 are always *displayed* with wrapping (even if they are sent as non-wrapped
 lines using MIME quoted-printable). But I may be missing something.
 
 If somebody can point me to the RFC that *requires* that lines must
 be *visibly* wrapped by the sender so that no client ever shows
 long lines, I am happy to file a bug report for Apple Mail (wouldn't
 be the first one :).
 
 If there is no such RFC, please report bugs for your clients that
 don't wrap long (MIME encoded) lines they receive to the width of
 the display window.

http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html

2.1 User Guidelines

2.1.1 For mail:
  ...
- Limit line length to fewer than 65 characters and end a line
  with a carriage return.
  ...

matthias
-- 
Matthias Apitz
t +49-89-61308 351 - f +49-89-61308 399 - m +49-170-4527211
e g...@unixarea.de - w http://www.unixarea.de/
Solidarity with the zionistic pirates of Israel?   Not in my  name!
¿Solidaridad con los piratas sionistas de Israel? ¡No en mi nombre!

___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread Paul Fertser
Hi,

Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller h...@goldelico.com writes:
 If there is no such RFC, please report bugs for your clients that
 don't wrap long (MIME encoded) lines they receive to the width of
 the display window.

Nikolaus, thanks for the serious attitude wrt this issue.

My client does wrap long lines to the width of the display window, but
as i'm using a tiling window manager, my client is almost always
fullscreen (and sometimes i split my screen horizontally, with MUA's
width obviously not affected).

I can agree that using f=f is legal but nevertheless i can see no
reason why insist on using it given it seems to have no benefits but
quite some drawbacks and hence it's customary to avoid it (e.g. most
mails at LKML are wrapped).

-- 
Be free, use free (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) software!
mailto:fercer...@gmail.com

___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller

Am 14.08.2010 um 15:55 schrieb Matthias Apitz:

 El día Saturday, August 14, 2010 a las 03:41:06PM +0200, Dr. H. Nikolaus 
 Schaller escribió:
 
 If somebody can point me to the RFC that *requires* that lines must
 be *visibly* wrapped by the sender so that no client ever shows
 long lines, I am happy to file a bug report for Apple Mail (wouldn't
 be the first one :).
 
 If there is no such RFC, please report bugs for your clients that
 don't wrap long (MIME encoded) lines they receive to the width of
 the display window.
 
 http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html
 
 2.1 User Guidelines
 
 2.1.1 For mail:
  ...
 - Limit line length to fewer than 65 characters and end a line
  with a carriage return.
  ...

Ok. But:


 October 1995
 
 Status of This Memo
 
This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
this memo is unlimited.
 
 Abstract
 
This document provides a minimum set of guidelines for Network
Etiquette (Netiquette) which organizations may take and adapt for
their own use.


I.e. I would not take it as a *requirement* and it is also quite old to stick 
to it.
It appears to be stimulated by times where 50% of the Internet users did
use a VGA screen and 95% dial-up modems. People did not have many
WYSIWYG systems as mail clients. Most mail clients were VT100 compatible.

So I fear I can't convince Apple with this (it does not even convince me...).

The only solution is, that I promise to try to press the return key every now 
and then (unless I forget)...

BR,
Nikolaus


___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread arne anka
sorry, but i completely fail to understand the issue.
every mail client worth using should be able to wrap lines even for  
received mails when displaying.

instead of forcing their idea of (maybe even outdated) conventions on  
other people, those having issues with lines being too long, simply should  
check their mail clients configuration and get over with it.

___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread Gennady Kupava
Hi, Nikolaus,

First, thanks for your work on next generation of free hardware, I hope
to use it one day. Didn't came to conclusion how my next device should
look like exactly, and i'm ok with fr so far.

But about line wrapping - i am using web interface to read community-ml,
so no way to control my 'client' parameters.

To get idea how your mail look like in web interface, try this link:

http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2010-July/062609.html

I think many people may find your letters this way, and it's really not
easy to read sometimes.

Just a note, all this wrapping topic is not really serious problem.

Gennady.


___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread steve
Le 14-08-2010, à 08:34:51 +0200, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller (h...@computer.org) a 
écrit :

 
 Am 13.08.2010 um 22:35 schrieb steve:
 
  Le 13-08-2010, à 19:45:51 +0200, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller
  (h...@computer.org) a écrit :
  
  such a thing is quite unlikely to expect from any large phone
  manufacturer. Even if they open up an existing design. They
  ususally squeeze every bit out of the design to reduce
  manufacturing cost and may have very special test procedures. And
  they may change internals every now and then to improve their
  production process. I.e. you may get version B4 this week and
  someone else version C7 in two weeks with differences in the
  not-documented area.
  
  Nikolaus, couldn't you wrap your lines to something more standard
  (72 or so ?) Thanks, I like reading your prose, but those long lines
  are really irritating.
 
 Hi Steve,

Hi Niklaus (not in Zürich toniht?)
 
 there are different opinions if the 80 char line wrapping of mail is standard 
 or some
 old-fashioned relict from the 80ies. I have tried to find out what it is but 
 it appears
 to be a problem with some MUAs not correctly handling RFC 2646.

I just read (in diagonal) through rfc 2646. It seems that it clearly
says to stick to lines not longer that 80 caracters.

Anyway, may studies have shown that the reader begins to be less
concentrated when lines exceed 80 caracters, that's *my* main point.

 Here is also some discussion about mailman being responsible or not:
 
 http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-us...@python.org/msg49755.html
 which says:
 
 The problem is that prior to Mailman 2.1.10, the format=flowed and
 delsp=yes parameters were not preserved in the outgoing message.
 
 I think the OM list uses version 2.1.9  so it could be a bug.

Maybe, but a lot of posters here don't have any problems with 72-80
caracters. I don't see where mailman comes in the game.

 I don't know if my mail client uses these paramters - but it does not have
 an option to do line wrapping when sending.

Bad MUA, change MUA (mutt maybe?) 

 So, wouldn't it be simpler if you reduce the width of your display window?
 Your client should then wrap long lines.

No it's not simpler, imagine that many people wrap at diffenrent
numbers, what should I do? Reduce *my* display every time a mail is
excedding 72-80 caracters? I'd become crazy.

 BR,
 Nikolaus
 
 PS: I have tried to format this mail manually, but it is quite a pain...

I understand that. But bottom line, you're using a mua that sucks, if it
doesn't give you the possibility to wrap lines at the lenght *you*
choose. Have a try at mutt [1], you'll be happy.

Personaly, I use mutt with vim as a text editor, and a simple {gq},
wraps the whole paragraph as I want, awsome :-)

[1] http://www.mutt.org/


Best regards,

--
steve

___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread steve
Le 14-08-2010, à 11:09:58 +0400, Paul Fertser (fercer...@gmail.com) a écrit :

 Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller h...@computer.org writes:
  Am 13.08.2010 um 22:35 schrieb steve:
  Nikolaus, couldn't you wrap your lines to something more standard (72 or
  so ?) Thanks, I like reading your prose, but those long lines are really
  irritating.
 
  there are different opinions if the 80 char line wrapping of mail is 
  standard or some
  old-fashioned relict from the 80ies. I have tried to find out what it is 
  but it appears
  to be a problem with some MUAs not correctly handling RFC 2646.
 
 Well, i can't really see how format=flowed can make any sense, even
 nowadays. I think all sane MUAs go without it by default, and for a
 reason: it messes with formatting which is important when you're
 sending snippets of code, patches, logs etc.
 
 Probably it's the right time for you to stop following the rules set
 by Apple and to start using a better MUA? ;)

Absolutely! Mutt maybe?
 

___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread steve
Le 14-08-2010, à 09:28:43 +0200, Matthias Apitz (g...@unixarea.de) a écrit :

 It is the responsibility of your MailUserAgent to wrap lines correctly
 around column 72. You are using Apple Mail (2.1081). If this can not do
 this, just use another MUA or another system providing correct software.

+1
 
 I'm using Mutt as MUA which in turn can use any editor when writing the
 body of the mail. I've set the editor to vim with some magic flags:
 
 set editor=vim \'+set textwidth=72\' \'+syntax match WarningMsg 
 /\\%70v.*/\' -i NONE

My setting too.

 this puts any char from position 70 in red color and wraps the line if
 my typing hits positin 72, but breaks it at the last blank before, i.e.
 does not break a word into two pieces.
 
 Just as a hint

A good one!


___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread steve
Le 14-08-2010, à 15:41:06 +0200, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller (h...@goldelico.com) 
a écrit :

  Please people stop spamming about line length.
  If you MUA is so good then ask it to automatically split long lines :-p
 
 I agree that we should not spam - but IMHO this was raised as a serious
 problem.

Serious no, just courtesy.
 
 I could live with the idea that everyone uses a MUA that can
 wrap lines when reading and displaying long lines. But it appears there
 are systems out there that can't (which I did not yet know). 

How does *your* mua display your own long lines? Does it wrap the lines
to a predefined length? Or do you see them as you type them?

 And I am asked to solve their display problem on the senders side

I'm not obliging you at all, it was just a nice remark and I felt I
could share it with you because through your prose I felt someone open
to remarks. That's all.

 (although I have much better things to do)...

I'm sure of that! (I don't write a lot here, but I read nearly
everything).

 Am 14.08.2010 um 09:28 schrieb Matthias Apitz:
 
  El día Saturday, August 14, 2010 a las 08:34:51AM +0200, Dr. H. Nikolaus 
  Schaller escribió:
  
  Nikolaus, couldn't you wrap your lines to something more standard (72 or
  so ?) Thanks, I like reading your prose, but those long lines are really
  irritating.
  
  Hi Steve,
  
  there are different opinions if the 80 char line wrapping of mail is 
  standard or some
  old-fashioned relict from the 80ies. I have tried to find out what it is 
  but it appears
  to be a problem with some MUAs not correctly handling RFC 2646.
  
  Here is also some discussion about mailman being responsible or not:
  
  
  Hi Nikolaus,
  
  It is the responsibility of your MailUserAgent to wrap lines correctly
  around column 72. You are using Apple Mail (2.1081). If this can not do
  this, just use another MUA or another system providing correct software.

He said it (also) :-)

 Before we start fingerpointing on any client we are using, let's do a little 
 more research.
 
 http://mailformat.dan.info/body/linelength.html
 
 quotes RFC 2822 (the successor to RFC 822):
 
   There are two limits that this standard places on the number of characters 
 in a line. Each line of characters MUST be no more than 998 characters, and 
 SHOULD be no more than 78 characters, excluding the CRLF.
 
 I.e. lines more than 78 characters are *not* forbidden. From this I conclude
 that a mail recipient must cope with that. If not, the client is broken.

No. Mutt displays long line but that's not a reason for it to be broken. 

I repeat, it is easier for humains to read lines not excedding 80
caracters, after you get tired and your concentration decreases. So as
the writer, your goal is to catch your readers attention and one way to
do it, is to wrap lines to a descent lenght (between 72 and 80
caracters). 

 And, I conclude that it is not a rule for writing or displaying mails - just
 for transferring them over SMTP without making buffer overflows.

I don't care what the MTA does (at this point).

 Now let's look into the plain code my MUA is sending. Here is an example:
 
  Hi Steve,
  
  there are different opinions if the 80 char line wrapping of mail is standa=
  rd or some
  old-fashioned relict from the 80ies. I have tried to find out what it is bu=
  t it appears
  to be a problem with some MUAs not correctly handling RFC 2646.
  
  Here is also some discussion about mailman being responsible or not:
  
 
 So Apple Mail *is* correclty sending wrapped lines according to RFC.

You're kidding I hope? Second line, there is only three words, same on
fourth line. The text presented like that just sucks.

 I do not excactly know what the rules are to interpret the = signs at the
 end of the line. I guess it has to do with 
 
 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1081)
 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
 
 A little more search shows this comes from RFC 2045 (MIME) on page 19 (Soft 
 Line Breaks).
 
 From this I conclude that the mails my client sends are correct (according
 to the standard).

I think your conclusion is wrong.

[...] 

Kind regards

--
steve 

___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community


Re: Mail Wrapping

2010-08-14 Thread steve
Le 14-08-2010, à 17:05:55 +0200, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller (h...@goldelico.com) 
a écrit :

 
 The only solution is, that I promise to try to press the return key every now 
 and then (unless I forget)...

IMHO, it is not a good solution. Otherwise, why use machines?
 

___
Openmoko community mailing list
community@lists.openmoko.org
http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community