Hi, Ivan!  Recently you wrote in a message to Roy Witt:   
      
      
    _ _ _ O / _ _ C_U_T_ H_E_R_E_ _ _ _   
          O \   
      
   >>>>> Ivan Shmakov wrote to Roy Witt:   
      
    IS> [1] http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/dp/B000I1X6PM   
      
    IS> [2] news:0001HW.CDB00E4C03038059B01029BF@news.eternal-september.org   
      
    _ _ _ O / _ _ C_U_T_ H_E_R_E_ _ _ _   
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              Looks okay, from where I sit....  :-)   
      
      
      
   IS>  My OP contained two URIs -- a 68 characters long http: one,   
   IS>  and a 63 characters long news: one.  Neither should've been   
   IS>  split, even after an "overhead" of 9 characters (reference   
   IS>  labels and quote attribution) was added (thus resulting in   
   IS>  77 characters on a line at most.)   
      
   IS>  Or is there a chance for a line to be split, or mangled, by   
   IS>  the software even if less than 80 (79) characters long these   
   IS>  days?   
      
      
              In a word... yes.  I know two or three Fidonetters, for example,   
   who set their margins at 40 characters per line.  One is visually impaired &   
   uses a screen reader which imposes this limit.  The other(s) may also have   
   limitations imposed by their hardware and/or software for reasons I'm unaware   
   of.  However, I can offer an educated guess as to what's going on.   
      
              Over the years I've observed SysOps & BBS users struggling to get   
   by on very low incomes because of medical conditions which make it   
   difficult... if not impossible... to find steady employment.  Such people   
   often depend on other people's castoffs, which may seem quite beyond the pale   
   to younger folks and/or to the fashionable crowd.  Dallas tells me the   
   instruction manual for the Atari 130XE, which ceased production in 1987, is   
   still available.  To the best of our knowledge there was no mailer for it.    
   But my point is that it also limited the display to 40 characters per line &   
   other stuff of a similar vintage may behave the same way.  Retirees with   
   pensions based on how much $$$ they earned in pre- inflation days are another   
   group who could be making do with antique equipment.   
      
              And then... as Roy has just reminded me... some people prefer to   
   set their margins at 72-78 characters although they could use 80 if they   
   wanted to.   
      
      
                                     ...   
      
      
              When I want an example to stand out, or quote something like:   
      
                     Be not the first by which the new are tried,   
                     Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.   
                                               -- Alexander Pope   
      
   I know timEd won't attempt to improve on this citation because in effect I   
   have indicated, by indenting it, that I don't want overcorrections made to my   
   choice of spacing.  IMHO software exists to serve my needs... not vice versa.    
   But one has to know how to humour it sometimes in order to achieve the desired   
   results. North American Fidonet software can generally be persuaded to begin   
   lines where you want them to begin by inserting a blank space or a "-" or a   
   ">" or a "*" at the left margin.  However, any line which exceeds the right   
   margin someone else uses may be split, mangled, or truncated.  Thus far I have   
   never felt a need to quote classic literature or lengthy URL's in echoes   
   frequented by folks who are limited to 40 characters per line.  If I had, I   
   might have figured out a way of working around the problem.  Meanwhile I trust   
   that anyone in the audience here who can't make head nor tail of whatever I'm   
   blathering about will say so.  ;-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)