Re: unwrapa invisible?

[cld@xxxxxxxx (Carl Distefano)]

Reply to note from Harry Binswanger  Mon, 13 May
2002 01:43:24 -0500

> Can Robert or Carl give a disquisition on the difference
> between unwrapa and unputcr? After looking at the help file,
> I'm still confused.

We've got two sets of utilities -- one by Robert, one by me,
developed at different times, with some differences in usage and
emphasis -- that serve the same purpose. WRAPA and PUTCR turn
wrapping text into CrLf-delimited text (for inclusion in email,
etc.). UNWRAPA and UNPUTCR perform the reverse operation. REWRAPA
and REPCR reformat delimited text to fit the current margin
settings.

Robert's routines are meticulous in their handling of punctuation,
hyphenation and alternate line-endings; they do quite a bit of
"thinking", as he pointed out. Mine are quicker and dirtier, but
handle plaintext well enough. I use them every day to compose and
manage e-mail within XyWrite. (Mine also operate within DeFined
blocks; REPCR actually *requires* a DF block).

If, at some point, we standardize on one underlying code base, we'll
retain the alternate routine names so the change would be more or
less invisible to the user. When Gigaherz processing becomes
universal, it may make sense to adopt the meticulous approach across
the board. For now, however, tooling along, as I do, at a pokey 200
Megaherz, I continue to appreciate the quick-and-dirty option.

--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx
http://users.datarealm.com/xywwweb/