Agreed.  Many readers can handle the un-wrapped text, but why
pointlessly be a headache for those that can't?  There's a clear
standard for Internet email, and trying to muscle in a new one just
isn't polite.

In the long run, people should probably use "enriched text" in their
email to get the nice paragraph refilling behavior.  Enriched text is
like LaTeX: one line-end makes a soft break, and two line-ends make a
hard break.  Smart recieving programs can then feel free to
automatically refill paragraphs, and dumb receiving programs will still
get something that looks okay (assuming the sending program formats to
72 or so characters per line).

I'll try and send this message as text/enriched, so people can see how
it works....

Lex




Rick Zaccone <zaccone at bucknell.edu> wrote:
>  Well, my mail reader doesn't wrap incoming messages either.  I think
>  it's best to send mail in a format that most likely to look good to
>  everyone.
>
>  1. Wrap outgoing text.
>
>  2. Don't use tabs.  Unix expands them to 8 spaces, Mac and Windows to
>     4 spaces.
>
>  3. Don't use accented characters.
>
>  4. Don't use HTML.
>
>  etc.
>
>  Rick
>  --
>  zaccone at bucknell.edu