On Fri, 20 Mar 1998, Jacob Palme wrote:
At 19.08 +0100 98-03-19, Chris Newman wrote:
I'm starting to think "wrap=yes/no" is a misleading name for the
parameter. Perhaps "format=fixed-lines/paragraphs" would be better.
Anyone have a better suggestion? (and please don't suggest
"blurdybloop=yes/no" :-).
I do not think the recipient mailer is very interested in knowing
whether the sender has wrapped paragraphs or not. The receipient
mailer is interested in what kind of processing it should perform,
such as:
The recipient is also interested in what programs can interpret the data.
For example, on my Macintosh I'd use SimpleText as the preferred
application creator code for "format=paragraphs" and I'd use CodeWarrior
as the preferred application creator code for "format=fixed-lines". The
types of processing and default views these programs are capable of is
very different and goes well beyond the distinction between whether or not
the diplay can be wrapped.
- Wrap long lines on the user display
- Use a smaller font, or a proportional font, so that long lines fit
on one line
- Insert a horizontal scroll bar in the viewing window
These are all currently legal behaviors for text plain, although the wrap
and proportional-font options will incorrectly display some text/plain
data.
- Automatically convert CRLF to space and double CRLF to new paragraph
That will never be an option for text/plain -- use text/enriched if
you want those semantics.
So the recipient mailer needs information if it should wrap or not,
not information about whether the sender has wrapped or not!
The recipient can decide what to do on its own if it knows what media type
it's receiving.
"wrap=no" might also indicate that a non-proportional font is suitable,
since the text may contain tables or ascii art. And "wrap=yes" might
indicate that a proportional font is suitable.
And this is a great example of why "wrap=yes/no" is a misleading label.
- Chris