[597] in BarnOwl Developers
barnowl edit:maxwrapcols should default to 70
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Anders Kaseorg)
Thu Oct 29 18:07:47 2009
Resent-From: nelhage@mit.edu
Resent-To: barnowl-dev-mtg@charon.mit.edu
From: Anders Kaseorg <andersk@MIT.EDU>
To: dirty-owl-hackers@mit.edu
Date: Thu, 03 May 2007 17:38:26 -0400
I've mentioned this in person, but I think it's important enough to
deserve an email.
1. The current default value of edit:maxwrapcols is 0, which causes
outgoing messages to be wrapped at the width of the window (minus 2
characters). So most people send 78 character messages from their 80
character terminal.
2. The default style indents incoming messages at 7 characters.
Therefore, to be able to read them without horizontal scrolling, you
need to set your terminal width to at least 85 characters.
3. That means that *your* outgoing messages get wrapped at 83
characters, and if I want to read them, I need a 90 character terminal.
4. Now my outgoing messages get wrapped at 87 characters, and you need a
95 character terminal.
5. A similar problem was responsible for the USSR’s creation of a 100
Megaton atomic bomb.
Therefore, I think that edit:maxwrapcols should default to 70, just like
edit:maxfillcols. It’s not enough to tell me to set it myself; the
point is that I don't want other people sending me messages that don't
fit on my screen.
asedeno raised the argument that wrapping can break the formatting of
pasted code. But since wrapping happens anyway, I don't see this as an
argument against at least setting a consistent wrapping width.
Anders
