Andy Burns <
use...@andyburns.uk> wrote
Hi Andy,
Good question. Very good question indeed.
My headers are so random that I don't even know the answer to that question.
Worse...
I openly admit I really know absolutely nothing about format=flowed,
so if you have advice that I can learn from, please explain it to me.
What I do know is each header is random, from a dictionary lookup which
itself is random except when a thread is started (then it remains).
For given newsgroups, I can control the header by newsgroup or by topic
where each complete header was culled from existing headers from prior
articles in specific newsgroup at the time of the initial creation of
the header dictionary file. As such, "some" certainly have "format=flowed",
while others certainly won't have that. It's completely random.
But I have never even once thought about the answer to your question.
Until now.
My "best" answer is "format=flowed" is random, not on purpose, but
because the entire header is random - so if it was there, it's there.
If not. It's not.
For example, here's a tiny snippet of the random header dictionary file...
(where I am allowing long lines for this specific vignette of course)
MIME-Version = 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=ISO-8859-1 format=flowed' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit' & 'User-Agent: NewsTap/4.0.1 (iPad)' %
MIME-Version = 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=ISO-8859-1 format=flowed' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit' & 'User-Agent: NewsTap/5.2.1 (iPhone/iPod Touch)'%
MIME-Version = 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=UTF-8' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable' & 'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh Intel Mac OS X 10.10 rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.5.1'%
MIME-Version = 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=UTF-8' %
Mime-Version = 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset="iso-8859-1"' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit' %
Mime-Version = 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset="iso-8859-15"' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit' %
Mime-Version = 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset="us-ascii"' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit'%
Mime-Version = 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=ISO-8859-1 format=fixed' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit'%
Mime-Version = 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=UTF-8' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit'%
Mime-Version = 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=us-ascii' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit'%
Mime-Version = 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=utf-8 format=flowed' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit' & 'X-Mozilla-News-Host: snews://
newsipv6.altopia.com:563' 'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0 WOW64 rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.0a2' & 'Content-Language: en-US'%
Mime-Version = 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=windows-1252 format=flowed' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit'%
Mime-Version = 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain format=flowed charset="UTF-8" reply-type=original' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit' & 'X-Priority: 3' & 'X-MSMail-Priority: Normal' & 'X-Newsreader: Microsoft Windows Mail 6.0.6001.18416' & 'X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.0.6001.18645'%
Mime-Version = 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain format=flowed charset="iso-8859-1" reply-type=original' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit' & 'User-Agent: NewsTap/5.2.1 (iPhone/iPod Touch)' %
User-Agent = ForteAgent/8.00.32.1272' & 'Mime-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=ISO-8859-1' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit' %
User-Agent = G2/1.0' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable' & 'Content-Type: text/plain format=flowed charset="ISO-2022-JP"'%
User-Agent = Hogwasher/5.18' & 'Mime-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=utf-8' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit'%
User-Agent = MacSOUP/2.8.6b1 (ed136d9b90) (Mac OS 10.12.3)' & 'Mime-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=ISO-8859-1' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit' %
User-Agent = MicroPlanet-Gravity/3.0.4' %
User-Agent = Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh Intel Mac OS X 10.10 rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.5.1' %
User-Agent = Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh Intel Mac OS X 10.13 rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.6.0' & 'Mime-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=utf-8 format=flowed' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit'%
User-Agent = Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh Intel Mac OS X 10.13 rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.7.0' & 'MIME-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=utf-8 format=flowed' & 'Content-Language: en-GB' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit'%
User-Agent = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0 WOW64 rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.6.0' %
User-Agent = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1 rv:43.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/43.0 SeaMonkey/2.40'%
User-Agent = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1 WOW64 rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.5.2' & 'Mime-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=utf-8 format=flowed' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit' %
User-Agent = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1 rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.7.1' & 'MIME-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=windows-1252 format=flowed' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit' %
User-Agent = Mozilla/5.0 (X11 Linux x86_64 rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Icedove/45.5.1' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset="US-ASCII"' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit' %
User-Agent = Mozilla/5.0 (X11 Linux x86_64 rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Icedove/45.5.1' %
User-Agent = Mozilla/5.0 (X11 Linux x86_64 rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.5.2' & 'MIME-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=utf-8 format=flowed' & 'Content-Language: en-US' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit' %
User-Agent = NewsTap/3.2 (iPad)' & 'Mime-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=UTF-8' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit'%
User-Agent = NewsTap/4.0.1 (iPad)' %
User-Agent = NewsTap/5.2.1 (iPhone/iPod Touch)' %
User-Agent = Ratcatcher/
2.0.0.25 (Windows/20130802)' %
User-Agent = Snitbuster (Multics version)'%
User-Agent = Thoth/1.9.0 (Mac OS X)' %
User-Agent = User-Agent: Thoth/1.9.0 (Mac OS X)' & 'Mime-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=ISO-8859-1' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit' %
User-Agent = XPN/1.2.6 (Street Spirit Linux)' & 'Mime-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=US-ASCII' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit' %
User-Agent = Xnews/2006.08.24' %
User-Agent = Xnews/2009.05.01 Mime-proxy/2.0.c.1 (Win32)' & 'Mime-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=us-ascii' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit'%
User-Agent = Xnews/??.01.30'%
User-Agent = flnews/0.14 (for AIX)' %
User-Agent = flnews/0.14 (for GNU/Linux)'%
User-Agent = slrn/
0.9.8.1 (FreeBSD)'%
User-Agent = slrn/1.0.2 (Darwin)'%
User-Agent = slrn/1.0.2 (Linux)' %
User-Agent = tin/1.4.5-20010409 ("One More Nightmare") (UNIX) (SunOS/5.10 (i86pc))'%
User-Agent = tin/1.6.2-20030910 ("Pabbay") (UNIX) (CYGWIN_NT-6.3-WOW/2.8.0(0.309/5/3) (i686)) Hamster/
2.0.2.2' %
User-Agent = tin/1.8.3-20070201 ("Scotasay") (UNIX) (Linux/4.9.0-0.bpo.5-amd64 (x86_64))' %
User-Agent = tin/2.2.1-20140504 ("Tober an Righ") (UNIX) (Linux/3.16.0-4-amd64 (x86_64))' %
User-Agent = tin/2.4.0-20160823 ("Octomore") (UNIX) (Linux/4.7.9-100.fc23.x86_64 (x86_64))' %
User-Agent = tin/2.4.1-20161224 ("Daill") (UNIX) (OpenBSD/6.1 (amd64))' %
X-Antivirus = avast! (VPS 170105-0, 01/05/2017), Outbound message' & 'X-Antivirus-Status: Clean'%
X-Comment = As always, YMMV' %
X-Newsreader = Forte Agent 1.91/32.564' %
X-Newsreader = Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American)' & 'Content-Type: text/plain format=flowed charset="ISO-2022-JP"'%
X-Newsreader = Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American)'%
X-Newsreader = Forte Agent 3.0/32.763' %
X-Newsreader = Forte Agent 4.2/32.1118' & 'MIME-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=us-ascii' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit' & 'X-Complaints-To:
ab...@easynews.com' & 'X-Complaints-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly.' & 'Organization: Forte -
www.forteinc.com'%
X-Newsreader = Forte Agent 4.2/32.1118' & 'MIME-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=us-ascii' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit'%
X-Newsreader = Forte Agent 5.00/32.1171' & 'MIME-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=us-ascii' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit' & 'X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 170216-1, 02/16/2017), Outbound message' & 'X-Antivirus-Status: Clean'%
X-Newsreader = Forte Agent 6.00/32.1186'%
X-Newsreader = Forte Agent 6.00/32.1186' %
X-Newsreader = Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3664' & 'X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3664' & 'X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed Original' & 'X-MSMail-Priority: Normal' & 'X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2' & 'X-Priority: 3'%
X-Newsreader = Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5512' & 'InjectionInfo:
reader02.eternal-september.org posting-host="fc3d35c6f45a04dbe5abd8b7a0bb6c5f" logging-data="24516" mail-complaints-to="
ab...@eternal-september.org" posting-account="U2BsdDVkX17yDAHpP19T3fhCWe6u79BaMEWT4QFqL/c="' & 'X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5512' & 'X-MSMail-Priority: Normal' & 'X-Priority: 3'%
X-Newsreader = Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5512' & 'X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5512'%
X-Newsreader = Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.3790.1830'%
X-Newsreader = PMINews 2.00.1205 For OS/2'%
X-Newsreader = PiaoHong.Usenet.Client.Free:1.65' & 'Mime-Version: 1.0' & 'Content-Type: text/plain charset=UTF-8' & 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit'%
etc.
These are all random. Culled from random headers on Usenet.
They're meaningless. Like wrapping paper is meaningless.
Some have format=flowed, of course.
Some don't.
Honestly, Andy... I don't even know what format=flowed does.
What does it do that matters anyway?
BTW, the gift of my posts aren't in what randomness is in the header.
But in the immense value of the information in the body line.
And no, I'm not hiding from you. Anyone intelligent can figure out my posts
in a few seconds (hell, I use the same unique screenshots for God's sake).
As I said, my "newsreader" is just a bunch of scripts making use of
telnet & vim, which was started on the Linux ngs by Marek Novotny (RIP).
I ported them to Windows so many years ago that I haven't looked at them in
a long time (since they work most of the time) but one thing I don't easily
see is specially who posted each time (and it doesn't matter to me anyway).
What matters to me is what is said. Not necessarily who said it.
a. If what they said is reasonable, I easily agree.
b. If not, I may disagree.
c. And almost always, I'll strive to add additional pertinent value.
The gift of my messages isn't in the random header wrapping paper.
To me, the header is meaningless wrapping paper since it contains nothing
of value pertinent to the thread topic which is meant to be a resource.
However... back to the point...
What you've said, about Subject length is reasonable. I agree with you.
And I'll see what I can do about it the next time I have to post a thread.
As for the bodies of the messages, I can control the line wrap length on a
line-by-line basis - but of course I don't do that unless I need to do it.
For some lines, such as long titles, in fact, when I quote them, I need to
widen the line length, such as I will in the next line you see below.
*As of November 2023, 3/4ths of Android models have the AUX jack, 1/2 have the FM radio, and 71% have the portable memory slot*
Extraneous blank white space & long lines are controlled automatically.
Unless I control it manually (which is a tickswitch in my scripts).
BTW, there is one problem that I've never been able to solve, which
is that the header sometimes controls other people's newsreaders.
What's in the header (e.g., format=flowed) may tell someone elses'
newsreader what to do but it has no bearing on what I've done.
I openly admit I really know absolutely nothing about format=flowed,
so if you have advice that I can learn from, please explain it to me.
--
On Usenet, intelligent people can profit from use-model discussions.