Re: [Pan-devel] Another problem I need to add to my list: word-wrapping. (Re: My list of present problems with Pan.)

[Duncan]

Heinrich Müller posted on Sat, 22 Oct 2011 23:17:02 +0000 as excerpted:

> Am Sat, 22 Oct 2011 22:41:40 +0000 schrieb SciFi:
> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I guess this would be #7 in my list, but the "priority" should be
>> raised somewhat, please.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> A text article can be reformatted with the View->BodyPane->Wrap
>> function (or simply hit 'w' on the keyboard while viewing a text
>> message).
>> 
>> The judgefudge repo is trying to make the text look nice this way,
>> but I see it is sometimes wrapping the text too "strongly".
>> 
> Don't blame me, i didn't change anything in the wrapping code.

I'm not sure he's blaming you, simply mentioning that he's running your 
repo and that it's not fixed there, so it's likely to be broken 
everywhere, ATM.

FWIW, this has been quite frustrating to me, for years.  The same "table 
needs wrapped one way, text a different way" issues REGULARLY occur with 
the technical type posts I spend a lot of time reading and answering.

Consider, for example, a traceroute "table" posting, with explanatory 
text before and after, or ascii-art diagrams illustrating some text or 
other.  In either case, the tables and ascii-art may well be composed or 
edited if necessary for posting, with the standard 72-80 char wrapping in 
mind, and thus display perfectly "unwrapped".  But the text will commonly 
extend "forever" if unwrapped, so one must wrap it to read it correctly, 
but as pan's wrapping code works now, that wraps the tables and ascii-art 
diagrams as well, turning them into a jumbled mess!

I've always thought that needed fixed at some point, but never thought 
out-of-box enough to realize that a binary wrapped/unwrapped choice isn't 
the only option, until now, and realized that however wrapping was 
handled, it wasn't going to be perfect for /some/ set of posts.

I *REALLY* like this tri-state wrap-mode idea, fully wrapped, fully 
unwrapped, and this third mode, wrap only what extends beyond 80 chars, 
leaving short lines (and arguably all hard-crlfs) alone.  The hotkey 
toggle could as easily toggle between three modes as between two, 
without /too/ much confusion.  (In my experience, it's only when there's 
at least four modes that keeping them all straight, including the toggle-
sequence, gets difficult.)

And leaving the current two alone, simply adding a third mode instead of 
replacing the current wrapped mode, means it's no big deal if the new 
mode's a bit buggy at first, since one can always just use the current 
wrapping mode (or the current unwrapped mode) instead, if the new one's 
too buggy.

So count me as +1 on this! =:^)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman