Subj : The universe
To   : RALPH ZETTER
From : Curtis Johnson
Date : Wed Nov 01 2000 09:32 pm

 -=> Quoting RALPH ZETTER to TODD HENSON <=-

 > Then stop assuming. If you were interested in actual conversation, then you
 > would have 
 > responded differently.

 RZ> Why is it that some messages here seem formatted OK, but others are
 RZ> more choppy? I use 
 RZ> Netscape to get here through the web. How about you?

	Your messages are also one of the choppy ones, at least on
my screen (as you can see).
	There's several possible reasons for this.  First, some people
use proportional fonts instead of monotype fonts on their computer, and 
in a slighly smaller size than that for the usual 26-line screen.  
However, the posts are transmitted as straight ASCII, which is monotype.
The standard is also inflexible about a line being 80 characters across
at the maximum:  any more, and a carriage return (CR) is inserted.
	The upshot is that a line which has more than 80 characters on
your screen has a CR character inserted before its end (which also has 
a CR), and the line is chopped into two lines, one rather longer than
the other.  This hardly ever happens with DOS-based editors.

	Another occurrence is someone who does use the monotype ASCII
characters with the 80-character limit, but who forgets that offline
readers insert initials, etc. on the left margin, and that much of
their text will be quoted at least once or even twice.  The simple
fix here is to simply set the R-hand margin to 68-72 characters.




	


--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 [NR]
 * Origin: America's favorite whine - it's your fault! (1:261/1000)

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