Re: [Pan-users] Re: Indented first line of paragraph

[Duncan]

On Mon 30 Jun 2003 13:57, Leandro Guimarães Faria Corsetti Dutra posted as 
excerpted below:
> On Sun, 29 Jun 2003 13:38:14 -0700, Duncan wrote:
> > On Sat 28 Jun 2003 11:09, Leandro Guimarães Faria Corsetti Dutra posted
> > as
> >
> > excerpted below:
> >>    In Latin languages it is usual to indent the first line of a paragraph,
> >> like this very same one.
> >>
> >>    But in Pan, this makes the end of the very same line break into a
> >> second too short line.
> >
> > Most electronic mail and news I'm aware of tends to use block style
> > paragraphs, as I do here, instead, skipping a line between paragraphs as
> > needed, rather than indenting.
>
>       Should this mean that I need to use another news client if I want to
> follow Latin conventions instead of newfangled block style?

My opinion only, NOT that of the PAN developers..  You are using "newfangled" 
internet news, why not use the block style paragraphs to match?  This isn't a 
hand written letter, it's an electronic message, to which electronic 
conventions should apply, not the old "dead tree" conventions.

That aside, you wish to use the old "dead tree" style in the new electronic 
media..  I must confess I don't quite understand the problem.  Altho (yes, 
the new electronic conventional spelling <g>) the RFCs for NNTP say body 
lines can be up to 1000 characters long, including terminating CRLF, 
tradition and the GNSKA guidelines that PAN abides by say 80 characters.  
Most recommendations therefore say 72-75 char lines, to leave room for 
several layers of quote characters before it will cause a rewrap @ 78 chars 
(excluding terminating CRLF.  PAN seems to wrap at 75 or earlier as needed 
depending on terminating word length, if you have autowrap on or hit the wrap 
button.  That should not change whether or not the first few characters are 
spaces or some other character.  If the line is over 75 characters including 
the indenting spaces, it should wrap to the next line, regardless of the 
length of the next line.  Are you saying this is NOT what it does?  

I just tested it here, using a 5 character indent so the visible characters 
actually began at space 6.  It seems to work as it should here.  Try it.  
First, repeat the characters 1-9 and a space, in that order.  You get 7 full 
sequences and PAN wraps the 8th one on 6.  That's 75 char line width as it's 
supposed to be.  Then, try the same thing with the first five characters 
spaces, and beginning at 6 instead of one since the first five chars are 
space.  As expected, you get (or at least I get) the first incomplete 
sequence, 6 full sequences, and a wrap typing the 6 on the next one.  Again, 
that's wrapping as it should at space 75.  Where is the problem?

Of course, you can always turn off autowrap, or otherwise format the line 
manually, so it wraps as you desire.  Of course, this is more work.  However, 
that's the way the recommendations say it should be done, and one of PAN's 
primary goals is to be and remain GNSKA compliant,* so I doubt that is going 
to change, unless of course the actual behavior is buggy, that is, not as 
described above.

* PAN was GNSKA evaluated and certified 100% on both MUSTs and SHOULDs, PAN 
version 0.9.3, evaluation report  url below.  Note point 14, 80 char line 
length SHOULDs.  PAN is the ONLY *ix newsreader to get a perfect 100% score, 
and the developers are rightfully VERY proud of that fact.  They are NOT 
planning to intentionally change that (the question has come up b4 in other 
areas), altho it's Software Libre (GNU GPL v 2), and you are of course free 
to get the source and make any changes desired b4 compiling it for your own 
use or redistribution in compliance with the license.  Should you wish to do 
so, ask, as others have, and they likely will even point out the lines that 
need changed to do what you wish, as they have b4.  However, the binaries or 
source coming out of pan.rebelbase.com WILL remain 100% GNSKA compliant, to 
the best of their ability, according to previous statements, so don't expect 
any changes contrary to that to be made standard.  If that's what you want, 
then yes, that DOES mean finding another newsreader, as PAN isn't the one for 
you.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~js/gnksa/Evaluations/pan-0.9.3.txt

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin