Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 10:36:44 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Quoting
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

At 09:06 AM 4/22/05 -0400, Ernest Lilley wrote:

>I just had a s=E9ance with my dead great grandfather, who was writing letters
>before there was an internet and he said that he never considered copying
>everything said in previous correspondence before starting in on his
response.

How many letters a day did your great grandfather get in an average day
before he was dead?  I'm guessing the average is less than one...I could
remember that many threads of conversation without much trouble.  The
several hundred a day that I go through is a different story.  Some sort of
a hint is required in most cases.

Keith:  the ">" thing actually does result in indenting, if you ignore the
">" characters.  It also looks like shorthand for an indent ("shift it all
thataway") that saves screen width.  At the time in question most folks had
a limit of 80 columns on their screens and no ability to shrink fonts or
use scrollbars (though some editors could do a screen shift thing with some
effort).

Kids these days don't know how good they have it...back in my day we had to
hand crank the calculators.  Seriously.

-- Mike B.
--
How come there's only one Monopolies Commission?