Subject: Addition

From: Ricky Chan <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 1996 18:58:44 -0600 (MDT)

Add ANSI graphics capabilities.... Signatures and BOLD words would look so
much better...if not ansi, extended DOS Ascii characters

---

From: Paul O Bartlett <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 1996 11:58:07 -0400

> much better...if not ansi, extended DOS Ascii characters

    This could be very difficult, to put it mildly.  First, many
people could be using Pine with terminals or terminal emulators that
have no ANSI graphics capabilities.  What about them?  What happens
when message streams with ANSI control characters hit their terminals? 
One possibility is havoc and a lot of swearing at whoever sent such a 
*&$#@!*?* message.

    And just what are "extended DOS Ascii characters"?  My guess is
that you are referring to characters represented by values 128 - 255 on
DOS code page 437.  I don't have figures, but my hunch is that this is
meaningless to the overwhelming majority of Pine users, probably most
of whom don't even use DOS at all.  Of those who do, many may use code
pages other than 437, such as 850 or 819, which do not have those
nifty-swifty symbols from CP 437.  I'm afraid your suggestion won't fly
very far in Pine's real world.

Paul                             <[email-masked]>
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