The Great "Hard Return" Debate

[Marty Abrego]

On Wed, 3 Nov 1999 08:31:14 -0800, Steve Lamb wrote:

> First off, lets talk about quotes.  Tell me, how would you do a multi line
> quote without CRs?  You are aware that a lot of clients will *correctly* place
> a single quote marker for a whole paragraph.  

Really?  If so, it must be rare.

>Do you really think that looks proper?  I don't.  

It's better than all that ragged text.  It would be a whole lot
easier for mail clients to key on the single quote char and reflow
the quotes to the viewing users' preference (the way it ought to be,
IMNSHO), if the user wanted to see a quote char at the beginning of
every quoted line.

>> You wouldn't have to stretch to accomdate the email -- it look good at any
>> size to which you stretch your window.
>
> Amazing.  Didn't you just say that CRs looked good only on "small" widths.
> Why would you stretch to a "small" width?  Could it be because you're using a
> "small" width?

I don't use a particularly "small" width -- I try to have the window
sized for 80 or so columns to accomodate those using 72 -- 78 column
hard-terminated lines.  But invariably, people will quote a long line
and wrap it to some uneven fraction and it looks like crap.  The
point is that it will *always* look right if not hard terminated and
the viewing client wraps the lines to fit the window.

>> Am I missing something here?

> Yes, 20+ years of history & quoting for starters.

You win; a new RFC will never fly --- the inertia is unstoppable. 
Eventually, if you can't read that *&^%$#@! M$ Outlook rich text
excrement, you'll have to live without email compatiblility with 99%
of internet users.  It's a beautiful world.  The only way out is to
emigrate to Proxima Centari...


                    \\|//
  Marty Abrego      (o o)                            photon@qnet.com    
 ---------------oOOo-(_)-oOOo------------------------------------------

 It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone
 collecting the sacrificial offerings.  Where there's service, there is
 someone being served.  Make no mistake about it, the man who speaks to
 you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters - and he intends to
 be the master.                                          -- Ayn Rand