Subj : promotion, nostalgia, the future
To   : Charles Pierson
From : August Abolins
Date : Tue Feb 02 2021 20:58:00

Hello Charles!

** On Sunday 31.01.21 - 17:36, Charles Pierson wrote to August Abolins:

 AA>> Which reminds me, how's your article coming along?..

 CP> It's stalled. Between the health scare with my wife, and
 CP> getting this thing running, and finding ways to make these
 CP> implementations for accessible to the average smartphone
 CP> user, it's fallen to the background.

Quite understandble. I hope you have somehow settled into a  
comfortable new-normal now that your wife is back home and the  
intensity and the unknowns of the initial post-op situation is  
less stressful.

 AA>> OK.. I just realized that the writing part could be done
 AA>> in portrait, while the reading part could be done in 16:9
 AA>> mode if the original posts are fixed width at over 65
 AA>> chars per line.

 CP> Perhaps with a native app for Android.  If I were to try it
 CP> on this setup it dies strange things and makes it more
 CP> difficult overall. Still not something I woukd do, but
 CP> other people might.

The flipping from H for reading (to get a full unwrapped view of  
a message) and V for typing (because a virtual keyboard is less  
intrusive of the viewing screen) seems to be the only way when  
dealing with a smartphone.

At least the flipping is possible with Telegram. My  
understanding is that Aftershock and HotDogEd only operate in  
the vertical?

 AA>> Excellent!  Since the person can flip the phone any way
 AA>> that suits them, then any echo has the capacity to look
 AA>> fine.

 CP> Why wouldn't it?  Other than ANSI graphics, or RIP if any
 CP> are still around, for the most part echos are all "chat".
 CP> Some just have specific topics.

ANSI and RIP would certainly be a problem in Telegram, as they  
are also a problem in many normal fidonet echos.  Besides, the  
"art" doesn't always render properly at other BBSes either.  I  
doubt that ANSI and RIP define BBS messaging as much as they  
demonstrate some retro technology.

As for my initial concern about limited echos for compatibility  
with Telegram, that was based on my experience with the desktop  
app (it has a non-changeable viewing panel - it's always a  
maximum of approx 65 chars) and the phone app on my 2"x2"  
Blackberry phone is not flippable - it doesn't even entertain  
the dynamic option to flip even though it wouldn't make a  
difference on my phone.  I came to realize that I was probably  
the only one using a 2"x2" screen. Everybody else has more  
modern phones with 16:9 screens - that is probably why nobody  
weighed in with saying anything bad about the viewing experience  
of WIDE fixed-width echomails.

 AA>> Stas just added %HELP and %LIST options to the
 AA>> Fido2teleBOT!

 CP> I saw that.  I'm guessing the have to do with available
 CP> features in the chat groups?

%HELP and %LIST are exclusive to the fidobot that Stas wrote. It  
has nothing to do with Telegram's features.

 AA>> Like I said, it's still very early in the game. There
 AA>> really hasn't been any regular promotion about the
 AA>> Fidonet<->Telegram linkup...

 CP> It's a double edged sword. of those 500 million how many
 CP> are interested in conversation, and how many just want to
 CP> share what theu ate for lunch?

I've read many smalt-talk chatter and one-liners in fidonet too.

--
  ../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.48
 * Origin: My Westcoast Point (1:153/757.21)

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