Thanks for the replies I have been getting so for.
They are helpful and allow me to understand both
the progam an dthe programmer's goals more
clearly, and thus help me to make up my mind.
First of all, new questions:
1. Why does my reply to Januk gets garbled in the
Subject line and suddenly gets "Re[2]: etc"
instead of your standard "Re: etc"?
2. How come that Ctrl-Z only works partially? What
I added (new CR's) can be undone, but what I
inadvertedly deleted cannot be brought
back.
On 17-09-2000 at 01:03, Januk Aggarwal kindly wrote:
> Karin Spaink typed:
>> 1. If you move your cursor down in the window in which you are
>> editing your mail (e.g. move it down to the next empty line), it
>> goes down but stays in the same column (read: horizontal axis) and
>> doesn't go to the beginning of the line or the last words in it,
> Yes, this is because TB supports a free caret interface. With this
> interface, you can use arrow keys or the mouse to put your cursor
> anywhere and start typing. This really helps when you're doing tables
> or lists.
I severely dislike this feature. It is in itself a
reason to give up The Bat (and explore other
clients). But apart from my personal likes and
dislikes, I don't think that your argument holds.
Yes, this is a nice feature when you make a table;
but how often do you make a table as compared to
you editing your message and moving up and down
through it?
It would be nice as a bonus, not as an
unturnoffable_standard. And if this indeed one of
The Bat's prime focusses, I will reconsider my
options.
>> as it should (since the space after the last
>> words is empty and not filled with trailing
>> spaces). Is this a bug, or a feature that can
>> be turned off?
> It's not a bug and it can not be turned off. If
> you get used to > hitting the home and end keys,
> I think you'll find it pretty convenient.
I am growing more used to it, but I find all the
extra keystrokes a hassle. And it _is_
non-standard.
>> 2. The tab. When I have "auto-format" on - I
>> want to, I like it, I need it because I rewrite
>> a lot - I can't seem to add a new parapraph to
>> a section.
> New paragraphs need a blank line between them. This makes your
> message more readable.
That is more than just a matter of taste: it's a
national habit. And I am not US or Canadian. To
people I correspond with, it looks weird; and to
my peers -- I am a writer -- it looks awkward. A
tab is the marker for a paragraph, a blank line
the marker for a new idea.
> Also this is necessary due to the way TB >
handles text editing. TB is a WYSIWYG text
editor. What this means > is the end of a line
within a paragraph is marked by the same > codes
as any other end of line.
See why this auto-formatting sucks? I inadvertedly
deleted a chevron that preceded your reply, and
since Ctrl-Z doesn't bring it back, TB's explicit
ignoring of a CR prevents me from reformatting
your quote. I can't put it back in order.
>> I can't seem to start on a new bit of the quoted conversation on a
>> new line; only when I add a blank line.
> This is as it should be given TB's implementation.
Ok. I consider this a serious flaw, one that by
itself could be enough to look elsewhere.
> See above for
> details. To work around this, you might want to get familiar with the
> <ctrl><shift><f> shortcut. This toggles the auto-format feature on
> and off.
Yes, it does! Thanks for that tip, it is highly
valued, and have been using this trick in the rest
of the mail. 'Cept when I reformatted the above,
after having implemented your tip (I had to
reformat, because I lost your chevrons again) each
and every CR just before one of the origial
chevrons, gave me one extra -- which I then had to
delete.
Listen. I am demanding. I know that. And I am not
trying to piss you off. But I _am_ desperate for a
mail client that has lots of features and can be
fine-tuned to a huge degree. The reasons? I get
heaps of mail (so I need good filtering and
auto-replies), I type fast but with lots of errors
(so they should be easy to correct and my cursor
should be easy to focus), I use my mail client 10
hours per day. I hate the bloatware that Eudora is
becoming and I dislike the road that they are
taking. I have been using Eudora for 5 years.
Basically, I want all it had plus some bug-fixing
and less new (stupid) features.
> With the auto format feature on, you can't do
> the following.
> 1. Answer e-mail
> 2. Show off free caret power
> 3. Send mail
> 4. Enjoy.
Ah, but you can... You're referring to tables,
right? When you have an unpoportional font, it's
so easy. Just _type_ a few spaces....
>> 3. The cookie file is a great feature and allows
>> for rotating signatures. The help file is however
>> not too helpful as to the format of the cookie
>> file. After some experimenting, I discovered that
>> each entry should have a line of its own, no
>> line-breaks, and no empty lines between entries.
>> But the cookies show up in one unbroken line
>> whenever I start composing an e-mail or hit reply.
>> How do you make your cookie-entries wrap?
> In an individual cookie, you can tell TB to insert a line break by
> using '\n'. If you put the following in your cookie file:
> Personal Plan:\n To avoid lucidity, clarity and sanity at all costs.
> It would be inserted as:
> Personal Plan:
> To avoid lucidity, clarity and sanity at all costs.
Nope, doesn't seem to work. Look at my .sig.
Plus, rather than only having my sig _wrap_, I
would like to give it line breaks. I'd rather have
=== cookie sig ===
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can
make words mean so many different things.'
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is
to be master - that's all.
-- Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass
=== end sig ===
...and that wityhout the blank lines. That is: I
want it to wrap _and I wand it to have two line
breaks: after Alice's remark and after Humpty's.
>> 4. Although The Bat claims to have "HTML auto
>> view" and while I have Options --> HTML auto view
>> on, I get to see all the html-mail as plain text,
>> tags included.
> Is this mail that you imported from Eudora? I think Eudora does some
> weird things to HTML mail so that it can not be imported correctly.
That could be the problem. Yes, I have imported
mail from Eudora, and no, I have not yet received
'fresh' HTML mail in TB.
Ah wait. I can make myself get it. I'll send
myself something from within Netscape... Hold on.
Ok, point taken.It _does_ work.
> Note that
> TB will not go out onto the net to get image files for you. This is a
> web browser's job, and so TB will only display images that are
> sent along with the message. As a result, you may prefer to turn off
> HTML auto-view. Then when you get HTML mail, just double click on the
> icon in the message view pane. You'll be sent to your default browser
> to view the HTML properly.
Excellent. Thank you for this tip. And no, I don't
expect my mail client to moonlight as a browser
;-)
>> 5. When will the developpers add proportional
>> fonts? I _hate_ proportional. Suddenly my mail
>> looks ugly.(Yes, I saw the workaround in the FAQ,
>> and I might try it, but I like Arial best).
> We're just going over this in another thread. From A. Curtis Martin's
> message from Sat, 16 Sep 2000 06:22:51 -0500,
Thanks.I read ACM's explanation, and one thing I
don't get: this, eh, what do you call it? free
caret thingie - especially with a fixed fonts it
is so much easier to make a table or some kind of
layout, because you know beforehand where any
character is going to land and you just add a few
spaces. So why whould one use _both_ fixed font
and free caret and make both unchangable? It
sounds like somebody is really hammering it in.
>> 6. Why isn't the "Find" utility listed under the
>> Tools menu? As of now, one can only find it in the
>> Icon toolbar.
> It is, Tools -> Search
<bends her head in shame>
I simply overlooked it. Sorry.
>> 7. I'd like to be able to tell The Bat to
>> automatically focus on my Inbox when new mail
>> has arrived. yes, it's a Eudora habit ;-)
> Can't be done at this time. Actually, this is a good thing, but I
> won't explore these arguments at this time.
Ok. I'll wait and lay back and think of Eudora ;-)
>> For the rest, I am quite impressed. And I'm
>> sure I'll have more questions while I proceed
>> to explore The Bat.
> Ask away, even some of the old timers still have to ask questions with
> all the features in TB.
Here ya go:
1. Is it possible to edit any config file
manually? For instance, I would like to have a
slightly greater range of headers as filereing
options. By now, The Bat has <subject>,
<recipient>, <sender>, <text>, <kludges> and
<anywhere>. But no <to>, which is invariably used
in mailing list, Manyually editing an .ini file
could do the trick, but inasfar as I can tell,
personal setings are stored in .flx and .cfg files
that one cannot edit.
2. Re: filtering: how do you create complex
filtering criteria? The main question right now
being: how do you distinguish between criterium A
_and_ criterium B and criterium A _or_ criterium
B?
- K -
--
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different
things.' 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master - that's
all.'%0D%0A -- Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass
--
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