Re: Solution to Footnotes wrapping to next page.

["N. Sivin" nsivin@xxxxxxxx]

Re Jeffrey Purvis's hostile message about Robert Holmgren, which will not
make newcomers feel more welcome, he states that he can read long lines in
email messages without difficulty 'simply by invoking the "Wrap Long Lines"
toggle in my Navigator "View" menu.'

I also find messages with overly long lines difficult to read, and
frequently give up rather than slog through them. One can assume that
Robert and I are just dumb, but an alternative and more charitable
hypothesis is that we don't use Netscape as our email reader. One might
then go back a step and ask why we are so dumb that we don't switch. I
can't speak for Robert, but it happens that Netscape 2.02, which is the only
version my university supports (and provides), does not have a Wrap Long
Lines toggle in its View menu! On the other hand, Eudora Lite 1.54, which I
do use for email, wraps long lines into reasonable ones automatically when I
paste a message into an outgoing mail screen.

There is no need for further flaming on this trivial issue. There is a real
point to think about, however. Many people find it hard to read messages
with longer than ca. 65 characters per line. A considerate person, rather
than demand that everyone buy a new email program, will try to avoid
inconveniencing them.

N. Sivin
History and Sociology of Science
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3325, U.S.A.
nsivin@xxxxxxxx