On Sun, 14 Nov 2004 09:39:16 +0100, Dierk Haasis wrote: > > o What exactly is the purpose of the blank space after the two > > dashes? What is the rationale for having that space, and, in > > particular, for having something invisible rather than visible? > > To come up with a line that would not easily be a valid text? Or > purely historic.
Well, I thought of that. But I don't think that adding the space makes a significant difference in repsect to something that would not easily be valid text. Some people use two hyphens as a dash (with a space before and after), and this could perhaps manage to get formatted onto a dedicated line. On the other hand, "--&" or "--#", for example, would probably be much rarer and easier to identify. > > o Is there any harm in configuring TB so that it also recognizes > > two dashes without the blank space as a valid sig delimiter (as > > QuoteFix does)? > > Two dashes could be used in text; my own empirics show (your post > implies the same) that the correct sig delimiter is never put into an > e-mail accidentally. Two dashes alone may be a simple typo. Okay, but there are other problems with requiring that space after the two dashes. The biggest problem is that it is very easy to not notice when it is missing. Another problem, just discovered, is that when someone sends mail in plain text from Hotmail (no one should panic, it's just an example), then the space gets stripped off and the sig delimiter no longer works. > > o Are there any other standard sig delimiters? (For example, "- > > --" seems to work in TB, but does it work with most modern email > > clients? In other words, is it standard?) > > Not that I know of, even the one you mention isn't one, it's an > escaped normal one (you missed the space). PGP does it. Upon many > requests here RITLabs considered a solution - and found one. Thanks for that clarification. Okay, we are stuck with just one sig delimiter and it - for reasons that are still mysterious to me - must have a space after the two dashes. But what is the harm if TB treats an incorrect sig delimiter of just two dashes (without the space) as a valid delimiter? -- Avi Yashar Windows XP Pro SP2 and The Bat! Pro 3.0.2.4 ________________________________________________________ Current beta is 3.0.2.7 Rush | 'Using TBBETA' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html IMPORTANT: To register as a Beta tester, use this link first - http://www.ritlabs.com/en/partners/testers/
