Wow! Go away for two hours and I'm 20 emails behind and the
subject I was thinking about has changed. (Probably a good thing, keeps me
from sending some better-not-sent posts.) Are all of you folks sitting
anxiously by your computers with your email opened???
But could I ask people to be sparing with the material quoted?
That usually isn't a problem, but with the present volume, it takes quite
a bit of time to go thru quoted and re-quoted material, and anything which
would pare down that task would be appreciated. Apologies for taking your
time on this.
On the subject of bangs and stars for linebreaks and
decorations...I haven't been following it closely, and now I admit to
being a bit puzzled as to the status of what's being decided. It
seems to me that using ! for both a hard linebreak and for ! ... ! in the
same tune is asking for trouble. Using spaces to help distinguish them
(did I see that suggested?) will lead to really frustrated users who can't
understand why abc refuses to behave as they expect---and who, after they
find out that it's just a missing or extra [EMAIL PROTECTED]& space (dialect of cartoon
language there, not abc) will re-invent Phil's unix post on the spot.
The other thing that makes this question a bit hard to decide is
that the linbreak usage is pretty much limited to abc2win, while the other
usage is so recent that not too many people even know about it yet. I
personally like ! ... ! as is, because my intuition is that the ! ... !
usage will be considerably more important in the long run, but of course,
that remains to be seen.
What about deciding what we actually want---whatever will make the
best abc---as opposed to what we think we are forced to accept? There
could be an abc2win compatibility mode---where ! is always a hard
linebreak---and some well-placed warnings to the effect that "There is an
ambiguous use of !. You may want to try abc2win compatibility mode."
And maybe, just maybe, if someone convinces Chris to downplay
abc2win on his site, the problem will get less acute with time.
(Or Jum Vint will update abc2win. But that is really too much to ask. I
am reminded of a sig I saw somewhere: "Programming is like sex: make one
mistake and you end up supporting it for life.")
Cheers,
John Walsh
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