[Info-vax] Real Usenet clients, was: Re: backups and compaction or nocompaction might be better

[AEF]

On Jan 31, 11:04 am, Stephen Hoffman <seaoh... at hoffmanlabs.invalid>
wrote:
> On 2013-01-31 15:27:22 +0000, Richard B. Gilbert said:
>
> > I learned to type on a manually powered typewriter which would hit the
> > end of the carriage and overstrike and any additional keystrokes!
>
> But have you moved on from those old manual typewriters, maybe to an
> electric typewriter, and probably from now to a computer?   Hopefully
> not using paper for reading postings, and hopefully you've avoided the
> generations of printing terminals that were around.  (Or have you
> connected that old manual typewriter into an nntpd net news server
> directly somehow?  That'd be an interesting hack.  News postings
> arriving, and clattering away as they're printed.  :-)

I had something similar in high school. Our "terminal" was a pathetic
console printer hooked up to a remote computer ("running" BASIC). The
thing was configured as a CRT terminal. (The teacher claimed we
couldn't fix that.) The "carriage" (print head, I believe, is the
right term) didn't return to the beginning of the next line in time if
the line was too long. It would miss printing the first few characters
of that next line! I had to strategically insert a SLEEP statements
into my code to fix this. I am not making this up.

> If you're using a computer now, then that can perform some amazing
> feats, depending on what software is loaded into it.  Some computers
> can even decode MIME headers, and can wrap text to the particular width
> you prefer to use, and can even display characters that weren't
> available on those old manual typewriters provided.   And unlike the
> old typewriters, computer software can be updated.

I'm very fond of cut, copy, and paste, myself.

And EDT. (^_^)

Spell checkers are a mixed blessing.

Oh, computers can also give you RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury).

They can also run Windows.

And you can introduce new bugs while fixing old bugs.

And check out the keyboards and mice that come with iMacs! The
keyboard is a true horror.

And they can produce ugly, hard-to-read, right-margin justification of
text containing fixed-width font.

And you can misuse LaTeX by not using \@ after certain words so as to
get the correct spacing after an abbreviation or after a sentence
ending with an uppercase letter (as many a LaTeX user does). And
Microsoft Word doesn't even let you do it right in the first place (I
think)! (I don't have my LaTeX manual handy, so it might be something
other than \@ .)

>
> For instance, didn't we resort to using the double-hyphen on those old
> manual typewriters, when we would have preferred using an em dash?

Not a biggie.

>
> Nope.  I don't miss the margin bell telling me I'm headed for a width
> too wide for the paper.  Nor messing around with the platen, nor the
> clatter carriage, nor the aroma of Wite Out or the correction tape.
> Though those ribbons with the stripe of white correction tape were
> interesting.  Like most folks, I use a computer now.  A computer that
> deals with H&J, wrapping, spelling[1], and that provides features that
> were never possible with either a manual or an electric typewriter.

What's H&J? Sounds like a women's clothing store, a record store, or
Howard Johnsons.

Remember to set the margin bell to allow a word as long as "strength"
to fit.

>
> ————
> [1]Details depend on the OS and the client.  The netnews client I'm
> using (Panic Unison) inexplicably doesn't default to automatic
> spell-checking.   But it can spell check, if I remember to ask for it.
> Yes, I've been looking for a better client.  No, I haven't sent an
> enhancement request to Panic.
>
> --
> Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC

AEF

Opinion, with facts mixed in where possible.