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

[Stephen Hoffman]

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.  :-)

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.

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?

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.

————
[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.

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