[Info-vax] VMS-based InfoServer

[MetaEd]

On Aug 6, 1:50 am, hel... at astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip Helbig---
undress to reply) wrote:
> In article
> <b33b115f-fcc5-400e-bd68-b4ed7d301... at j8g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>,
> MetaEd <met... at gmail.com> writes:
> > But I am only the sender. The collapse occurs on the
> > receiving terminal, which I do not control.
>
> Right.  But why should Google Groups try to control the receiving
> terminal?

To transmit a message is to control a receiving terminal. So it is
never a question of whether to control the receiving terminal. It is
only a question of what controls to use which will cause the receiving
terminal to reproduce the message faithfully.

> > This is the dilemma. If my message is sent unchanged, the receiving
> > equipment will sometimes screw up my formatting by collapsing the
> > spaces.
>
> Then it is broken.

A receiving terminal that uses a proportional font or collapses
whitespace is not broken, it is just not a teletype. If I assume the
recipient has a teletype, then my formatting will be screwed up, but
that is not the fault of the receiving terminal.