Re: make mutt the `standard' mail reader
On Sun, Jan 17, 1999 at 03:36:42PM -0800, Steve Lamb wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Jan 1999 17:33:40 -0600, John Goerzen wrote:
>
> >Well then, that's your problem, not the senders, eh? You cannot blame him
> >because you are using tabs set to something strange.
>
> Yes, I can, because tabs are variable and should be avoided when the
> text is going to be viewed on hudreds or thousands of different systems for
> just that reason. The width of the space, however, remains a constant. If
> one does feel the need to use tabs they should have their editor convert
> them to spaces when saving the message for consistancy.
The "de-facto standard Internet tab size" has always been 8 characters. The
standard e-mail font has always been monospaced. If you use anything else,
especially among Unix geeks, you deserve whatever you get.
Windows mailreaders typically use proportionally-spaced fonts with about
0.5-inch tabs, with the option of monospaced fonts and 8-character tabs. If
you want to format a table for a Windows mailreader, you need to have
columns less than 8 chars wide and use tabs to separate them, because spaces
are randomly sized and tabs contain an unknown number of characters.
<silly mode>
Hmm, you know, HTML-based e-mail would fix this problem right up :)
</silly mode>
Meanwhile, if you want perfect-looking messages on technical mailing lists,
keep with monospaced fonts and 8-char tabs.
Have fun,
Avery
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