Monospaced font

[vefatica]

Many will post code and console clips here. Since the user can't set a preference (can he?) for posting and reading in any particular font, could you make the default a monospaced font?

I set this article to Courier New ... anxious to see if it shows up that way.

 

[rconn]

Many will post code and console clips here. Since the user can't set a preference (can he?) for posting and reading in any particular font, could you make the default a monospaced font?

I set this article to Courier New ... anxious to see if it shows up that way.

It did, and it looks awful -- which is why I'm not setting the default to mono!

The users can pick a mono font if they want to format a message in a particular way.

 

[vefatica]

On Wed, 28 May 2008 21:07:40 -0500, you wrote:

>>Many will post code and console clips here. Since the user can't set a preference (can he?) for posting and reading in any particular font, could you make the default a monospaced font?
>>
>>I set this article to Courier New ... anxious to see if it shows up that way.
>
>It did, and it looks awful -- which is why I'm not setting the default to mono!
>
>The users can pick a mono font if they want to format a message in a particular way.

Right. And they'll have to do it every single time they post. And I suppose
anything emailed in plain text will show up in a proportional font. And readers
on the web have no choice at all. Do you use a proportional font when you code?

I don't care how it looks. It should be functional.

Using the web interface is no pleasure (though it's pretty and as you know, I
enjoy the testing). You can't nest quotes. You can't partially quote with ease.
You have to jump from page to page and scroll a lot. 60% of my browser's real
estate is wasted. In the new forums, there's no NNTP at all, and emails look
like crap. No one (least of all you) raved about sparklist but it's not even
gone and I'm beginning to long for the good old days.

--
- Vince

 

[vefatica]

It did, and it looks awful -- which is why I'm not setting the default to mono!

The users can pick a mono font if they want to format a message in a particular way.

Right. And they'll have to do it every single time they post. And I suppose anything emailed in plain text will show up in a proportional font. And readers have no choice at all. Do you use a proportional font when you code?

I don't care how it looks. It should be functional.

Using this web interface is no pleasure (though it's pretty and as you know, I enjoy the testing). You can't nest quotes. You can't partially quote with ease. You have to jump from page to page and scroll a lot. 60% of my browser's real estate is wasted. In the new forums, there's no NNTP at all, and emails look like crap.

 

[rconn]

vefatica wrote:

>>> Many will post code and console clips here. Since the user can't set a preference (can he?) for posting and reading in any particular font, could you make the default a monospaced font?
>>>
>>> I set this article to Courier New ... anxious to see if it shows up that way.
>> It did, and it looks awful -- which is why I'm not setting the default to mono!
>>
>> The users can pick a mono font if they want to format a message in a particular way.
> ---End Quote---
> Right. And they'll have to do it every single time they post.

Only if they want to post TCC screen output, which if the past is any
guide will be rather less than 1% of the total. And unless they're
trying to show column output, the font type will be irrelevant.

> And I suppose anything emailed in plain text will show up in a proportional font.

That's dependent on the user's email configuration. If you want
monospace fonts, you can change your default.

(This is no different than email or NNTP access through SparkList.)

> And readers on the web have no choice at all.

If the writer thinks it's important to have it monospace (nobody ever
has before), they now have the option to do that.

I have never seen a forum that defaulted to mono; if I ran across one I
would run far, far away.

> I don't care how it looks. It should be functional.

This seems faintly ridiculous to me -- you haven't had mono fonts for
the last 10 years with SparkList, and it didn't seem to bother you any.
Why are you so disturbed about it now?

> Using the web interface is no pleasure (though it's pretty and as you know, I
> enjoy the testing). You can't nest quotes. You can't partially quote with ease.
> You have to jump from page to page and scroll a lot. 60% of my browser's real
> estate is wasted. In the new forums, there's no NNTP at all, and emails look
> like crap. No one (least of all you) raved about sparklist but it's not even
> gone and I'm beginning to long for the good old days.

I don't; I plan to dance on SparkList's grave!

BTW, you couldn't do any of those things (or almost anything else) with
SparkList's awful web interface.

The new web interface is far better than SparkList's; the email is at
least a tie (IMO it's better now), and the admin tools are 100 times better.

NNTP is apparently incredibly important to 1% of the users (and was a
hindrance to much of the remaining 99% because of their company's
blocking it), but the fact is that NNTP is not supported in new products
anymore. If it was available I would include it, but it's not worth my
spending a few months writing an NNTP module for a dozen users, no
matter how much they grumble!

If anybody wants to write an NNTP plugin for vBulletin, I'll be happy to
make it available for testing.

- Rex

 

[vefatica]

On Wed, 28 May 2008 23:23:36 -0500, you wrote:

>---Quote---
>> And I suppose anything emailed in plain text will show up in a proportional font.
>---End Quote---
>That's dependent on the user's email configuration. If you want
>monospace fonts, you can change your default.

Can that default be set in the forum user's prefs? Or are you suggesting I
start sending HTML email (something I have never done, could do, never will do).
--
- Vince

 

[rconn]

vefatica wrote:

>>> And I suppose anything emailed in plain text will show up in a proportional font.
>> ---End Quote---
>> That's dependent on the user's email configuration. If you want
>> monospace fonts, you can change your default.
> ---End Quote---
> Can that default be set in the forum user's prefs? Or are you suggesting I
> start sending HTML email (something I have never done, could do, never will do).

I was talking about your email preferences on your machine, not your
forum preferences. Outlook / OE / Thunderbird all allow you to set your
default font for text emails.

The new forums do allow you to specify whether you want text or html mail.

Rex Conn
JP Software

 

[Timothy Byrd]

Vince try using {CODE} tags (with square brackets instead of curly) to surround your batch text.

For example:

set _exe=%@search[WINAMP.EXE,%ProgramFiles\Multimedia\Winamp;%ProgramFiles\Winamp]
iff defined _exe then
    set .mp3="%_exe" /play
    setdos /x-5
::    alias wamp (if not isapp "%_exe" ("%_exe"%+ delay 1))%+ "%_exe" /play %%@if[%%# == 0,"%%_cwd","%%@no_trailing_slash[%%$]"]
    alias wamp (if not isapp "%_exe" ("%_exe"%+ delay 1))%+ "%_exe" /play %%@if[%%# == 0,"%%_cwd",%%@if["%%@unquote[%%1]" == "*",,"%%@no_trailing_slash[%%$]"]]
    setdos /x+5
    unset _exe
endiff

In the web interface, it's the '#' button on the toolbar.

-- Tim

 

[Steve Fabian]

vefatica wrote:




I was talking about your email preferences on your machine, not your
forum preferences. Outlook / OE / Thunderbird all allow you to set your
default font for text emails.

The new forums do allow you to specify whether you want text or html mail.

Rex Conn
JP Software

I had replied by email to this post at 10:14 EDT. It has shown up neither on the web, nor reflected back to me as "instant notification". OTOH the response in this thread to another post (by timothy) emailed at 14:28 was reflected at 14:36 (8 min).

 

[Timothy Byrd]

Now I'm starting to test the email interface...

-- T

Vince try using {CODE} tags (with square brackets instead of curly) to surround your batch text.

For example:

set _exe=%@search[WINAMP.EXE,%ProgramFiles\Multimedia\Winamp;%ProgramFiles\Winamp]
iff defined _exe then
    set .mp3="%_exe" /play
    setdos /x-5
::    alias wamp (if not isapp "%_exe" ("%_exe"%+ delay 1))%+ "%_exe" /play %%@if[%%# == 0,"%%_cwd","%%@no_trailing_slash[%%$]"]
    alias wamp (if not isapp "%_exe" ("%_exe"%+ delay 1))%+ "%_exe" /play %%@if[%%# == 0,"%%_cwd",%%@if["%%@unquote[%%1]" == "*",,"%%@no_trailing_slash[%%$]"]]
    setdos /x+5
    unset _exe
endiff

In the web interface, it's the '#' button on the toolbar.

-- Tim

 

[Timothy Byrd]

Drat! I'm reading my mail through gmail, and the board software rejects my replies. My email test will have to wait until I get home tonight.

-- T

 

[rconn]

Timothy Byrd wrote:

> Drat! I'm reading my mail through gmail, and the board software rejects
> my replies. My email test will have to wait until I get home tonight.

Are you using profiles? The board will bounce your messages if it
thinks you're forging the header.

Rex Conn
JP Software

 

[Timothy Byrd]

Are you using profiles? The board will bounce your messages if it
thinks you're forging the header.

My registered email address is through pobox.com, which is just an email redirector. I forward that address to my gmail account. At work, I'm reading directly in gmail. When I reply through gmail, I think the message is marked as being from "(timothy)@gmail.com on behalf of (timothy)@pobox.com", or something similar.

When I get home, I'll be using Thunderbird, and that will let me send the reply with a proper from address.

-- Timothy

 

[Timothy Byrd]

(trying again from home...)

Hoping the CODE tag works from email...

set _exe=%@search[mac.EXE,%ProgramFiles\CD-R\Monkey's
Audio;%ProgramFiles\Monkey's Audio;%ProgramFiles\Multimedia\Monkey's
Audio]
iff defined _exe then
  alias mac "%_exe"
  alias mac_d `mac %1 "%@path[%1]%@name[%1].wav" -d`
  alias mac_e `mac %1 "%@path[%1]%@name[%1].ape" -c5000`
  unset _exe
endiff

-- T

Timothy Byrd wrote:

> Now I'm starting to test the email interface...
>
> -- T

 

[Steve Fabian]

rconn wrote:
| vefatica wrote:
| ---Quote---
|||| And I suppose anything emailed in plain text will show up in a
|||| proportional font.
||| ---End Quote---
||| That's dependent on the user's email configuration. If you want
||| monospace fonts, you can change your default.
|| ---End Quote---
|| Can that default be set in the forum user's prefs? Or are you
|| suggesting I start sending HTML email (something I have never done,
|| could do, never will do).
| ---End Quote---
| I was talking about your email preferences on your machine, not your
| forum preferences. Outlook / OE / Thunderbird all allow you to set
| your default font for text emails.

In the case of OE, only for reading. I often suffer the font problem when
replying to HTML mail. Even though I specified plain text, and the "format"
pull-down shows I am replying in plain text, it is displayed in a
proportional font that is smaller than my default Courier New font. However,
that problem does not exist when I use OE to reply to "instant
notification".

|
| The new forums do allow you to specify whether you want text or html
| mail.

When using OE to respond to an "instant notification", I run into several
difficulties (in order of importance in my perception):


1/ As mentioned in another thread, normal posting delay via the current
sparklist server is a few seconds. Admittedly there have been occasions when
the sparklist server was either down, or had other problems, resulting in
very long delays. Similar problems occur with any server, and even with our
own machines. Comcast's (my ISP) uunet portal was down for very long times
recently, it did not affect email or sparklist access.

2/ I must manually delete all the junk below the sender's signature when
responding

3/ I must manually convert the quoting style for doubly, triply, multiply
quoted text to the simple style of email/nntp quoting. Above (where I did
not convert) you see one "quote", and 3 "end quote" lines.

4/ I cannot use the "reply to all" / "reply" choices (in OE, ^G vs. ^R) to
select whether my response is posted for the group or sent as private mail
to the originator of the message. Any reply is always to the group. To
answer to the poster privately I need to dig out the address from the raw
message - tedious but possible, unless disguised, and rarely needed.

--
Steve

 

[rconn]

Steve Fábián wrote:

> 1/ As mentioned in another thread, normal posting delay via the current
> sparklist server is a few seconds. Admittedly there have been occasions
> when
> the sparklist server was either down, or had other problems, resulting in
> very long delays. Similar problems occur with any server, and even with our
> own machines. Comcast's (my ISP) uunet portal was down for very long times
> recently, it did not affect email or sparklist access.

I've never seen more than a 10-minute delay; but then I've never sent
return-receipt-requested (which as I mentioned previously gets dumped
into the spam pile.)

> 2/ I must manually delete all the junk below the sender's signature when
> responding

Depends on which mail format you've requested. In any case, it's a
1-second operation.

> 3/ I must manually convert the quoting style for doubly, triply, multiply
> quoted text to the simple style of email/nntp quoting. Above (where I did
> not convert) you see one "quote", and 3 "end quote" lines.

I never do any conversion. (Not necessary for html emails; optional for
text emails depending on how you want to format it.)

> 4/ I cannot use the "reply to all" / "reply" choices (in OE, ^G vs. ^R) to
> select whether my response is posted for the group or sent as private mail
> to the originator of the message. Any reply is always to the group. To
> answer to the poster privately I need to dig out the address from the raw
> message - tedious but possible, unless disguised, and rarely needed.

This is user-configurable -- unless they specifically request it, their
email addresses will not be available. (Nor, IMO, should they be -- a
spammer could just as easily harvest the addresses.)

Rex Conn
JP Software

 

[BillMc]

On Fri 30-May-08 8:30pm -0600, rconn wrote:

> I've never seen more than a 10-minute delay; but then I've never sent
> return-receipt-requested (which as I mentioned previously gets dumped
> into the spam pile.)

My first was over 8 hours.

--
Best regards,
Bill