Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watcgl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!watcgl!dmmartindale From: dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) Newsgroups: net.news Subject: Re: FYI: underlining/highlighting in news articles Message-ID: <669@watcgl.UUCP> Date: Wed, 5-Dec-84 10:13:32 EST Article-I.D.: watcgl.669 Posted: Wed Dec 5 10:13:32 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 6-Dec-84 03:07:08 EST References: <2@osu-eddie.UUCP> Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 24 > (6) The fact that the feature exists in the news software indicates that > somebody somewhere for some reason thought it would be a good, neat, useful > idea. I happen to agree. That person added it. I'm glad. Evidently, it was > not implemented fully, in that not all terminals which can be used with the > news software can deal with it. I have one flame in my mail which objects > LOUDLY to the fact that it has hung up their terminal. Now I'm not so glad > any more. (I don't even know what type of terminal it was; just keep it away > from me.) With all the due respect that I can muster for the news software > authors, let this be a lesson to you about half-implementations of features. > If you can't do it *completely*, please be kind and don't do it *at all*. The news system is evolving, and always has some partly-implemented or buggy features in it. If you insist on stable, fully-implemented software, I suggest you simply not read news for another several years, at least. Besides, the "news software" does NOT handle highlighting as a feature. B news is just tolerant enough not to throw away backspaces in its input; this may be changed at some point in the future. RN, perhaps, may handle the highlighting, but that isn't part of the standard news distribution. Readnews may send articles over a certain length through more(1) on systems that have it, but not all do. So please don't assume that because a feature works on your machine it is a standard, designed-in feature. Dave Martindale