From: G6JPG-255@255soft.uk   
      
   In message <6fWdnY9VsJMR3SXBnZ2dnUU78YWdnZ2d@brightview.co.uk>, Ian   
   Goddard  writes:   
   []   
   >However, line length is more nuanced than that.  It appears to come   
   >from RFC 2822 which says "Each line of characters MUST be no more than   
   >998 characters, and SHOULD be no more than 78 characters, excluding the   
   >CRLF."  So it's actually 80 bytes including the EOL pair,   
   >coincidentally the length of one of John's lines.  But the RFC goes in   
   >to say   
   []   
   >"The more conservative 78 character recommendation is to accommodate   
   >the many implementations of user interfaces that display these messages   
   >which may truncate, or disastrously wrap, the display of more than 78   
   []   
   The 80 was based on the width of fixed-width screens - and before those,   
   the printing terminals they replaced! (Hence the expression "glass   
   teletypes"). [I can't see why "80 including the CRLF" - 80 isn't a power   
   of two, so I can't see it being a buffer size.]   
      
   A more conservative limit of 72 (I have also seem 64) is often   
   suggested, especially for newsgroup posts, which allows for posts to be   
   quoted, which adds "> " (two characters); thus text can be quoted up to   
   four times without getting too long. IMO, there's rarely a reason for   
   more than four levels - if a thread goes beyond four cites, as of course   
   many do, then it is rare for the more-than-four-ago text to still be   
   relevant, and it should have been snipped before that. However, snipping   
   to only leave relevant text quoted is becoming a lost art.   
      
   Notwithstanding the above, any news client software worth its salt   
   should have the ability to rewrap text anyway, to whatever width viewing   
   window the user has selected.   
      
   Of course, these "rules" well predated ridiculously long URLs. People   
   _can_ use URL shorteners, though (a) some people don't like them because   
   they don't know where they point to [there's at least one where the   
   expansion is two-step to mitigate such concerns - I think it has   
   "preview" in the domain name], (b) it's a faff to use them. To get   
   around (b), I commend to the house the Firefox add-on Shortly URL   
   Shortner, which gives me a button that both shortens the current URL and   
   places the short version into the clipboard ready for pasting; I've just   
   tried and it looks like it's no longer available, but I'm sure there are   
   others similar (and for other browsers), hopefully some that link to the   
   one with the preview function.   
      
   JPG   
   --   
      
      
   (Where has the "treat northern Ireland differently" option gone?)   
      
   Three- (or four-) way referendum, if we _have_ to have another one.   
   --   
   Petitions are still unfair.   
   https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/232770 255soft.uk #fairpetitions   
   --   
   J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf   
      
   The early worm gets the bird.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)