From: Hermit (hidden@lucifer.com)
Date: Wed Apr 17 2002 - 16:20:08 MDT
Eugene
I recommend to your attention - [url=http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=31;action=display;threadid=11526]FAQ: Hermitish mail mark-up and citation V2.1[/url]
According to the relevant and applicable RFCs (RFC 821, RFC 822 RFC 934, STD 11, RFC 1049, RFC 1341, RFC 1342, RFC 1343, RFC 1512, RFC 1521, RFC 1522, RFC 1590, RFC 2045, RFC 2046, RFC 2047, RFC 2048 and RFC 2049 (amongst others) being most relevant. An appendix in RFC 2049 describes differences and changes from previous versions.), presentation, including line wrapping, is the responsibility of the mail client, not the originator. [quote]In contrast with paper-based communication, it is interesting to note that the RECEIVER of a message can exercise an extraordinary amount of control over the message\'s appearance. The amount of actual control available to message receivers is contingent upon the capabilities of their individual message systems.\"[/quote]
While line lengths are limited, the limitation is to [quote]1000 characters or less [RFC-821] [/quote] (of 7 bit ASCII) which implies that extended characters are not possible without escaping.
Hard line breaks are depreciated except at paragraph ends and alterations made by the system are intended to be removed prior to delivery.[quote]During transmission through heterogeneous networks, it may be necessary to force data to conform to a network\'s local conventions. For example, it may be required that a CR be followed either by LF, making a CRLF, or by <null>, if the CR is to stand-alone). Such transformations are reversed, when the message exits that network.[/quote] If your mail client is broken, you might consider reading and more particularly responding to posts on the bulletin board at [url]http://virus.lucifer.com[/url]
As we have had discussions which go to 15 to 30 layers of nesting, where a standard [b]65[/b] or [b]72[/b]column terminal using \">\" delimited indenting would use most of the line for the indentation, we tend to use an alternate style for all but the most trivial discussions. This is fully discussed at the above reference. Where this style is not used, and the person writing has a significant contribution to make, one of the moderators may take it upon themselves to reformat their submissions. Unfortunately this takes a significant amount of work when the posters (who should know what they themselves said) could do it more easily. Their unwillingness to make their posts readable generally suggests that they have nothing worth saying as they are not particularly interested in readability or presentation. An impression that most virians prefer to avoid.
Regards
Hermit
---- This message was posted by Hermit to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=25358>
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