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Old July 17th 20, 08:46 PM posted to alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.os.windows-10,comp.sys.intel,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips
Char Jackson
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Posts: 213
Default OT: Disable line wrap for long lines (was Linux founder tells Intel to stop ...)

On Fri, 17 Jul 2020 03:10:26 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:

With some newsreaders, such as my old copy of Agent 2.0, brackets
aren't a workaround for a deficient client. They are simply markers
to let the composition window know that the configured line length
value should be ignored for text between the brackets.


Ah, it's a sender's client trick to prevent line breaks. Understood.
In my NNTP client, I don't need to do that for URLs as they kept intact
in one physical line; however, it does have a Word Wrap toggle that I
can click to insert a composition marker (not in the sent copy) to keep a long string from line wrapping. I use it occasionally, like for a wide data table where line wrapping makea it unintelligible. (I used it on this line as an example.)
It keeps the long string as one long physical line. The reader's client
might enforce line splitting at their configured line length. Nothing I
can do about that. My tricks sounds similar to your bracketing trick.


Agreed. When composing a post with a long URL, we use whatever 'trick' or
method that particular client allows or requires in order to override the
configured line length. For me it's angle brackets and for you it could be
the word wrap toggle.

With my client, the angle bracket method only works in specific
circumstances. For example, it seems to require the "http://" string or the
"www." string, and I'm not sure what else. With my client, the angle
brackets become part of the post, and thus travel with the post. In your
case, there's nothing added to the post and thus nothing extra travels with
the post.

Note that some clients don't require any of this, from what I hear. They
simply recognize URLs and do the right thing, not just during composition
but also during subsequent reading, even when URLs are split across lines.
When my client encounters a split URL, it doesn't recognize the entire URL
and requires me to remove the line break(s) and any quote markers. That's
easy to do, but it's not automatic.

However, I've seen those long strings in a long line include the angle
brackets. They might be a hint in the composition window in the
sender's client, but they were also included in the sent copy.


That's exactly how my client does it. The angle brackets become part of the
message.

As a
test, could you reply with a long string, like 200 characters, enclosed
in your non-wrap markers, so I could see if the submitted copy has the
non-wrap markers or not?


If it's regular text with spaces and no http:// or www. string, then angle
brackets aren't going to do anything special here. They would just be
included as text in the post. To do your test, I would have to use the left
angle bracket, either of the two URL markers, (there may be others that I
don't know), followed by text without spaces, (for me, a space marks the
end of a URL), ending with a right angle bracket.

Example:
www.To%20do%20your%20test,%20I%20would%20have%20t o%20use%20the%20left%20angle%20bracket,%20either%2 0of%20the%20two%20URL%20markers,%20(there%20may%20 be%20others%20that%20I%20don't%20know),%20followed %20by%20text%20without%20spaces,%20(for%20me,%20a% 20space%20marks%20the%20end%20of%20a%20URL),%20end ing%20with%20a%20right%20angle%20bracket.

That should post as a single line, but what happens in anyone's client when
they retrieve and view it is out of my hands.