Subject: Re: Peeve about writing a message

From: Jago <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 1996 14:00:09 -0400

On 2 Sep 1996, Adam Vardy wrote:

> I have one particular problem that really bugs me.  It drives me nuts 
> actually and has ever since I started with Pine.  Say I am writing a 
> message, probably a few paragraphs.  So I type away.  Now I look back and 
> decide I want to insert a couple lines in the middle of the first 
> paragraph.  So I cursor up there and type that.  But it doesn't work.  
> The line I'm typing on just insists on getting longer (with a $ at the 
> end), and doesn't wrap around.  So this really gets to be a chore!
> 
> I have to cursor over to the end of the line, hit Return, and then set 
> about adjusting each following line in that paragraph so that it looks 
> nice and proper with ~70 char's per line.
> 
> Why does Pine do this to me?  And why can't it work like a fairly 
> "half"-decent wordprocessor?  The editor I'm using is Pico.

Go to Setup/Config and see what the value for "composer-wrap-column" 
is.  If it's 0 or if it's set wider than what your screen can display, 
there's your problem.  A good rule of thumb, IMO, is to set it from 74 to 
78 since most users operate at a width of 80 columns.  Hope this helps!

-- 
{--------------------------------------------------------------------------}
{ Name: Steven C. King               Institution: Florida State University }
{ Addr: [email-masked]  Major field: MM Performance           }
{       [email-masked]      Instrument:  Clarinet, piano (hobby)  }
{ http://otto.cmr.fsu.edu/~king_s    Last words:  Typing?  What's that?    }
{--------------------------------------------------------------------------}

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From: [email-masked] (Adam Vardy)
Date: 2 Sep 1996 14:27:25 GMT

- Adam

---

From: Jago <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 1996 14:01:36 -0400

> 78 since most users operate at a width of 80 columns.  Hope this helps!

I should make a correction.  You can set the margin any width you want.  
It's just a good idea to not exceed 80 columns.  Sorry for the slight 
confusion.  Best regards.....

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From: Mike Brudenell <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 09:25:11 +0100 (BST)

Ummm... it sounds like there may be something funny with your setup...

Question: Are you really using Pico (the separate standalone editor
invoked either manually or automatically from Pine as the "alternate
editor"), or using Pine's built-in composer (which is Pico in disguise).

You can tell by starting to compose a message and, the cursor in the
Message Text area, looking at the header line at the top of the screen.
If this looks something like this:

PINE 3.95L   COMPOSE MESSAGE REPLY               Folder: INBOX 53 Messages

Then you're using Pine's built-in composer and I'm confused by what you
report you're seeing.  Let me elucidate...

Pine's built-in composer certainly does word-wrap if you go back and add
text to an existing line in a paragraph.  However the word-wrapping is
limited in that:

	*  Words are pushed off thee line onto a new line inserted after
	   the current one (ie, they aren't added to and rewrapped into
	   subsequent lines).

	*  Deleting words from a line does not "suck back" words from the
	   subsequent lines.

This is primarily because the composer (and standalone Pico's word wrap
mode) is a text editor, not a full-blown word processor.

Word-wrapping in this manner is the default action for both Pine's
built-in composer (Pico in disguise) and standalone Pico.  For the latter
the action can be suppressed by starting it with the "-w" command line
option, which will then give the effect you describe.

This tends to make me think that you're not using Pine's built-in
composer, but instead invoking Pico with a "pico -w" command setup either
in your own personal configuration or in your system's systemwide Pine
configuration file.  Check your Setup Configuration screen for the value
(if any) set up for the "editor" variable.

Finally... both Pico and Pine's built-in composer offer a very handy
command that justifies (re word-wraps) the current paragraph.  This is ^J
(shown in the command menu at the bottom of the screen).

Just put your cursor on the untidy paragraph and type ^J for it to be
rewrapped.  (A "paragraph" is a sequence of lines delimited either by
blank lines or a line with leading whitespcae.)

Cheers,

Mike Brudenell                                         <[email-masked]>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Computing Service, University of York, Heslington, York, YO1 5DD, UK
Tel: +44-1904-433811  FAX: +44-1904-433740  http://www.york.ac.uk/~pmb1/

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From: David L Miller <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 1996 14:39:54 -0700

> confusion.  Best regards.....

Pine does not allow composer-wrap-column to be over 80 characters
(unless you re-compile with a higher limit...)  

|\ |  |\/|  David L. Miller    [email-masked]  (206) 685-6240
|/ |_ |  |  Software Engineer, Pine Development Team   (206) 685-4045 (FAX)
University of Washington, Networks & Distributed Computing, Box 354841
4545 15th Ave NE, Seattle WA 98105, USA

---

From: [email-masked] (Mark Schlegel)
Date: 6 Sep 1996 12:04:14 GMT

Mike Brudenell ([email-masked]) wrote:
: 
: Finally... both Pico and Pine's built-in composer offer a very handy
: command that justifies (re word-wraps) the current paragraph.  This is ^J
: (shown in the command menu at the bottom of the screen).
: 
: Just put your cursor on the untidy paragraph and type ^J for it to be
: rewrapped.  (A "paragraph" is a sequence of lines delimited either by
: blank lines or a line with leading whitespcae.)
: 
: Cheers,
: 
: Mike Brudenell                                         <[email-masked]>

It would be really neat to have pine able to do this ^J trick
while being sensitive of reply marks like > or :  that way
when you do the justify ^J this:

>>> Boss,
>>> Bob go to Boston and .....        way out there ..... show 
>>> them the project report

doesn't become:

>>> Boss,
>>> Bob go to .....
way out there ... show >>> them the project report

but rather

>>> Boss,
>>> Bob go to....
>>> way out there .... show them the project .....

so the reply marks don't get all mixed into the text

Mark