Re: Section_7.02.03 (Newsgroup description)

chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk (Charles Lindsey) wrote:
>kaih@khms.westfalen.de (Kai Henningsen) writes:
>>chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk (Charles Lindsey) wrote:

>>> Although, in accordance with [MESSFOR] and 4.6 of this standard, a
>>> newsgroups-line could have a maximum length of 998 octets, as a matter
of
>>> policy a far lower limit, expressed in characters, SHOULD be set. A
>>> commonly accepted convention is to limit its length so that the
>>> newsgroup-name, the HTAB(s) (interpreted as 8-character tabs that takes
>>> one at least to column 24) and the newsgroup-description (excluding any
>>> moderation-flag) fit into 79 characters.  However, this standard does
not
>>> seek to enforce any such rule, and reading agents SHOULD therefore
enable
>>> a newsgroups-line of any length to be displayed, e.g. by wrapping it as
>>> required.

>> Please take out any mention of 79 as a total line length.

> Why? That sentence describes existing practice exactly.

Existing practice isn't necessarily good practice.  We should avoid setting
limits wherever possible, especially artificial (and artifactual) limits.
--
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    ,_--//--_,
 _-~_-(####)-_~-_  "Did you see that Parkins boy's body in the tunnels?"
"Just
(#>_--'~--~`--_<#)  the photos.  Worst thing I've ever seen; kid had no
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Received on Friday, 24 March 2000 13:14:44 UTC