Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!ames!ll-xn!adelie!infinet!rhorn From: rhorn@infinet.UUCP (Rob Horn) Newsgroups: news.software.b,news.admin,news.misc Subject: Re: Messages with >80-character lines Message-ID: <989@infinet.UUCP> Date: Fri, 23-Oct-87 17:02:58 EST Article-I.D.: infinet.989 Posted: Fri Oct 23 17:02:58 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 25-Oct-87 22:27:48 EST References: <767@quacky.UUCP> <696@unisoft.UUCP> <37e7ff5a.b8ab@apollo.uucp> <1453@haddock.ISC.COM> Reply-To: rhorn@infinet.UUCP (Rob Horn) Organization: Infinet, Inc. North Andover, MA Lines: 44 Xref: mnetor news.software.b:907 news.admin:1241 news.misc:1064 I don't think that these simple solutions will work well. There are many aspects of an article that have to be handled properly: indentation of quotations, marking inclusions from previous postings, poetry, pictures, etc. A new format that can convey all this information and still meet the needs of the most restrictive transport mechanisms would be to define a minimal set of TeX macros that encompass the kinds of text structures that news articles need. Then the news reading software can tailor the formatted display to the capabilities of the display hardware. The super fancy bitmap displays get spiffy formats and the CRT users get the same old stuff. This would have one drawback(?). Since information like ``prior article inclusion'' is now formatted locally a poster could not control whether the display uses >>'s, font, or indentation to signify inclusion. Similarly other text structures might display differently on different devices. I don't think this overall approach is yet practical. A recognizing filter seems plausible enough, although more complex than these early posters seem to realize. But on the display side I think that the computational load would be excessive. I can just imagine our poor little 11/750 attempting to run multiple TeX's for all our news readers. Maybe some fast CRT oriented substitute could be dreamed up. Another set of problems is implementing this in a manner that allows for a rational transition period. It must be able to coexist with prior versions of software for several years --- this being the approximate lifespan of obsolete versions of news software. It must be easy to add as an upgrade. Both pose real difficulties. TeX is not the only suitable system, but it is well suited to conveying structure independently from text. If the other problems can be overcome than the selection of what formatting system to use becomes interesting. I have my doubts about the suitability of either troff or Postscript (and thus NeWS) because both of these are too close to the display device and have already mapped some of the textual structures into specific formatting concepts. -- Rob Horn UUCP: ...harvard!adelie!infinet!rhorn Snail: Infinet, 40 High St., North Andover, MA (Note: harvard!infinet path is in maps but not working yet)