Am 28.11.25 um 01:39 schrieb Keith Thompson:
bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
[...]
Can you *please* do something about the way your newsreader
(apparently Mozilla Thunderbird) mangles quoted text? That first
quoted line, starting with "> How exactly", would have been just
74 columns, but your newsreader folded it, making it more difficult
to read. It also deletes blank lines between paragraphs.
I don't recall similar problems from other Thunderbird users.
Actually Thunderbird is not very good in doing formatting;
it's okay in cases where conventions are followed, but some
types of replies just can't be (or aren't, at least) handled
automatically. (Guessing a free-style format is ambitious.)
Depending on the format and text quoted you sometimes need
some additional manual formatting effort, especially if line
lengths exceed the [historic] conventions, and if lines are
manually split to respond to parts separately. Some posters
just don't seem care much creating readable formatted text
which includes to "fix" effects of that specific newsreader.
But the format I see created from your newsreader (where you
quoted bart) appears also "wrongly formatted". If I test-wise
reply to bart's post the formatting of Thunderbird is okay.
So it boils down, I think, that deviating from the posting
standards will always create one or another formatting issue.
(I'd vote for following historic conventions but I'm positive
that wish won't come true.)
A practical hint for Thunderbird users; marking a "corrupt"
paragraph with the mouse and typing Ctrl-R reformats the text
(including quoted parts by rearranging the indent characters).
But of course don't try to do that with _preformatted_ texts
like source code.
Janis
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