Discussion:
Ping DaveG - pan 0.140
(too old to reply)
mick
2016-08-24 00:38:52 UTC
Permalink
Dave, a small problem you may recall from awhile ago that I never
resolved was the extra carraige returns in the signature ver 0.139. I am
still experiencing it in the updated 0.140.

The bug was reported back in 2008
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554178

I notice that your signature has always been three lines from any quoted
text instead of the five that I suffer from.

In your Pan's posting profile what signature TYPE do you use?
I have tried text and text file but they make no difference.

There has been a lot of fixes in the latest release but not the one I
wanted and I have not noticed anything else that has changed or made a
difference.
--
mick
DaveG
2016-08-24 18:23:36 UTC
Permalink
Post by mick
Dave, a small problem you may recall from awhile ago that I never
resolved was the extra carraige returns in the signature ver 0.139. I
am still experiencing it in the updated 0.140.
The bug was reported back in 2008
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554178
I notice that your signature has always been three lines from any quoted
text instead of the five that I suffer from.
In your Pan's posting profile what signature TYPE do you use?
I have tried text and text file but they make no difference.
There has been a lot of fixes in the latest release but not the one I
wanted and I have not noticed anything else that has changed or made a
difference.
Pan 0.140, sig type text file.
--
Resistance is not futile. Its Voltage divided by Current
It's the (Ohms) Law.
mick
2016-08-24 19:02:49 UTC
Permalink
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Dave, a small problem you may recall from awhile ago that I never
resolved was the extra carraige returns in the signature ver 0.139. I
am still experiencing it in the updated 0.140.
The bug was reported back in 2008
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554178
I notice that your signature has always been three lines from any
quoted text instead of the five that I suffer from.
In your Pan's posting profile what signature TYPE do you use?
I have tried text and text file but they make no difference.
There has been a lot of fixes in the latest release but not the one I
wanted and I have not noticed anything else that has changed or made a
difference.
Pan 0.140, sig type text file.
thanks, same here, text file.
must be mint that is causing the problem, was the same in 17.3 KDE, now
using Cinnamon 18.
--
mick
DaveG
2016-08-26 00:51:53 UTC
Permalink
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Dave, a small problem you may recall from awhile ago that I never
resolved was the extra carraige returns in the signature ver 0.139. I
am still experiencing it in the updated 0.140.
The bug was reported back in 2008
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554178
I notice that your signature has always been three lines from any
quoted text instead of the five that I suffer from.
In your Pan's posting profile what signature TYPE do you use?
I have tried text and text file but they make no difference.
There has been a lot of fixes in the latest release but not the one I
wanted and I have not noticed anything else that has changed or made a
difference.
Pan 0.140, sig type text file.
thanks, same here, text file.
must be mint that is causing the problem, was the same in 17.3 KDE, now
using Cinnamon 18.
FWIW your thread starter had 4 blank lines before the sig and this one
I'm replying to had only 3
--
Resistance is not futile. Its Voltage divided by Current
It's the (Ohms) Law.
mick
2016-08-26 01:06:39 UTC
Permalink
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Dave, a small problem you may recall from awhile ago that I never
resolved was the extra carraige returns in the signature ver 0.139. I
am still experiencing it in the updated 0.140.
The bug was reported back in 2008
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554178
I notice that your signature has always been three lines from any
quoted text instead of the five that I suffer from.
In your Pan's posting profile what signature TYPE do you use?
I have tried text and text file but they make no difference.
There has been a lot of fixes in the latest release but not the one I
wanted and I have not noticed anything else that has changed or made a
difference.
Pan 0.140, sig type text file.
thanks, same here, text file.
must be mint that is causing the problem, was the same in 17.3 KDE, now
using Cinnamon 18.
FWIW your thread starter had 4 blank lines before the sig and this one
I'm replying to had only 3
Ah, that's because the first post was a Text signature and the second
post was a Text File signature. I'll stick with the signature done in
a text file as that does not look so bad. Thanks for the feedback.
--
mick
DaveG
2016-08-26 11:35:28 UTC
Permalink
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Dave, a small problem you may recall from awhile ago that I never
resolved was the extra carraige returns in the signature ver 0.139.
I am still experiencing it in the updated 0.140.
The bug was reported back in 2008
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554178
I notice that your signature has always been three lines from any
quoted text instead of the five that I suffer from.
In your Pan's posting profile what signature TYPE do you use?
I have tried text and text file but they make no difference.
There has been a lot of fixes in the latest release but not the one
I wanted and I have not noticed anything else that has changed or
made a difference.
Pan 0.140, sig type text file.
thanks, same here, text file.
must be mint that is causing the problem, was the same in 17.3 KDE,
now using Cinnamon 18.
FWIW your thread starter had 4 blank lines before the sig and this one
I'm replying to had only 3
Ah, that's because the first post was a Text signature and the second
post was a Text File signature. I'll stick with the signature done in a
text file as that does not look so bad. Thanks for the feedback.
I wonder if the text signature displays an extra blank line because you
put an LF at the end of the text you typed in?
--
Resistance is not futile. Its Voltage divided by Current
It's the (Ohms) Law.
mick
2016-08-26 18:14:09 UTC
Permalink
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Dave, a small problem you may recall from awhile ago that I never
resolved was the extra carraige returns in the signature ver 0.139.
I am still experiencing it in the updated 0.140.
The bug was reported back in 2008
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554178
I notice that your signature has always been three lines from any
quoted text instead of the five that I suffer from.
In your Pan's posting profile what signature TYPE do you use?
I have tried text and text file but they make no difference.
There has been a lot of fixes in the latest release but not the one
I wanted and I have not noticed anything else that has changed or
made a difference.
Pan 0.140, sig type text file.
thanks, same here, text file.
must be mint that is causing the problem, was the same in 17.3 KDE,
now using Cinnamon 18.
FWIW your thread starter had 4 blank lines before the sig and this one
I'm replying to had only 3
Ah, that's because the first post was a Text signature and the second
post was a Text File signature. I'll stick with the signature done in
a text file as that does not look so bad. Thanks for the feedback.
I wonder if the text signature displays an extra blank line because you
put an LF at the end of the text you typed in?
No, both the text and text file are just the four characters with the
cursor left blinking after the k, then saved.
Shame I can't put a minus line feed in the text file.:-)
The easiest way is just to delete the extra spaces before posting, like
this, if I remember.
--
mick
mick
2016-08-26 19:47:11 UTC
Permalink
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Dave, a small problem you may recall from awhile ago that I never
resolved was the extra carraige returns in the signature ver 0.139.
I am still experiencing it in the updated 0.140.
The bug was reported back in 2008
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554178
I notice that your signature has always been three lines from any
quoted text instead of the five that I suffer from.
In your Pan's posting profile what signature TYPE do you use?
I have tried text and text file but they make no difference.
There has been a lot of fixes in the latest release but not the one
I wanted and I have not noticed anything else that has changed or
made a difference.
Pan 0.140, sig type text file.
thanks, same here, text file.
must be mint that is causing the problem, was the same in 17.3 KDE,
now using Cinnamon 18.
FWIW your thread starter had 4 blank lines before the sig and this one
I'm replying to had only 3
Ah, that's because the first post was a Text signature and the second
post was a Text File signature. I'll stick with the signature done in a
text file as that does not look so bad. Thanks for the feedback.
I wonder if the text signature displays an extra blank line because you
put an LF at the end of the text you typed in?
Misunderstood with my first reply at 19.14.
No, I am not putting an extra line feed at the end of my typed text.
When I open follow up to newsgroup there is a blank line below the
other persons quoted text, then a blinking cursor ready for me to start
typing my reply on the second line, then three blank lines below the
cursor, then the two dashes and then the signature, that's five blank
lines between the last line of quoted text and the two dashes. If I
use the 'text' signature instead of the text file signature that
produces six blank lines between the other persons quoted text and the
two dashes before I ever start typing.
Using MesNews this time which looks right.
--
mick
DaveG
2016-08-27 09:00:57 UTC
Permalink
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Dave, a small problem you may recall from awhile ago that I never
resolved was the extra carraige returns in the signature ver 0.139.
I am still experiencing it in the updated 0.140.
The bug was reported back in 2008
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554178
I notice that your signature has always been three lines from any
quoted text instead of the five that I suffer from.
In your Pan's posting profile what signature TYPE do you use?
I have tried text and text file but they make no difference.
There has been a lot of fixes in the latest release but not the
one I wanted and I have not noticed anything else that has changed
or made a difference.
Pan 0.140, sig type text file.
thanks, same here, text file.
must be mint that is causing the problem, was the same in 17.3 KDE,
now using Cinnamon 18.
FWIW your thread starter had 4 blank lines before the sig and this
one I'm replying to had only 3
Ah, that's because the first post was a Text signature and the second
post was a Text File signature. I'll stick with the signature done in
a text file as that does not look so bad. Thanks for the feedback.
I wonder if the text signature displays an extra blank line because you
put an LF at the end of the text you typed in?
Misunderstood with my first reply at 19.14.
No, I am not putting an extra line feed at the end of my typed text.
When I open follow up to newsgroup there is a blank line below the other
persons quoted text, then a blinking cursor ready for me to start typing
my reply on the second line, then three blank lines below the cursor,
then the two dashes and then the signature, that's five blank lines
between the last line of quoted text and the two dashes. If I use the
'text' signature instead of the text file signature that produces six
blank lines between the other persons quoted text and the two dashes
before I ever start typing.
Using MesNews this time which looks right.
'tis odd and no idea why yours should be different to mine. Maybe it's
not Pan but a library dependency? Have you asked in the Pan mailing list?
--
Resistance is not futile. Its Voltage divided by Current
It's the (Ohms) Law.
mick
2016-08-27 14:23:06 UTC
Permalink
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Dave, a small problem you may recall from awhile ago that I never
resolved was the extra carraige returns in the signature ver 0.139.
I am still experiencing it in the updated 0.140.
The bug was reported back in 2008
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554178
I notice that your signature has always been three lines from any
quoted text instead of the five that I suffer from.
In your Pan's posting profile what signature TYPE do you use?
I have tried text and text file but they make no difference.
There has been a lot of fixes in the latest release but not the
one I wanted and I have not noticed anything else that has
changed or made a difference.
Pan 0.140, sig type text file.
thanks, same here, text file.
must be mint that is causing the problem, was the same in 17.3 KDE,
now using Cinnamon 18.
FWIW your thread starter had 4 blank lines before the sig and this
one I'm replying to had only 3
Ah, that's because the first post was a Text signature and the second
post was a Text File signature. I'll stick with the signature done
in a text file as that does not look so bad. Thanks for the feedback.
I wonder if the text signature displays an extra blank line because
you put an LF at the end of the text you typed in?
Misunderstood with my first reply at 19.14.
No, I am not putting an extra line feed at the end of my typed text.
When I open follow up to newsgroup there is a blank line below the
other persons quoted text, then a blinking cursor ready for me to start
typing my reply on the second line, then three blank lines below the
cursor, then the two dashes and then the signature, that's five blank
lines between the last line of quoted text and the two dashes. If I
use the 'text' signature instead of the text file signature that
produces six blank lines between the other persons quoted text and the
two dashes before I ever start typing.
Using MesNews this time which looks right.
'tis odd and no idea why yours should be different to mine. Maybe it's
not Pan but a library dependency? Have you asked in the Pan mailing list?
I've asked (Saturday 3.00pm), awaiting reply.
--
mick
mick
2016-08-28 15:43:08 UTC
Permalink
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Dave, a small problem you may recall from awhile ago that I never
resolved was the extra carraige returns in the signature ver 0.139.
I am still experiencing it in the updated 0.140.
The bug was reported back in 2008
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554178
I notice that your signature has always been three lines from any
quoted text instead of the five that I suffer from.
In your Pan's posting profile what signature TYPE do you use?
I have tried text and text file but they make no difference.
There has been a lot of fixes in the latest release but not the
one I wanted and I have not noticed anything else that has
changed or made a difference.
Pan 0.140, sig type text file.
thanks, same here, text file.
must be mint that is causing the problem, was the same in 17.3 KDE,
now using Cinnamon 18.
FWIW your thread starter had 4 blank lines before the sig and this
one I'm replying to had only 3
Ah, that's because the first post was a Text signature and the second
post was a Text File signature. I'll stick with the signature done
in a text file as that does not look so bad. Thanks for the feedback.
I wonder if the text signature displays an extra blank line because
you put an LF at the end of the text you typed in?
Misunderstood with my first reply at 19.14.
No, I am not putting an extra line feed at the end of my typed text.
When I open follow up to newsgroup there is a blank line below the
other persons quoted text, then a blinking cursor ready for me to start
typing my reply on the second line, then three blank lines below the
cursor, then the two dashes and then the signature, that's five blank
lines between the last line of quoted text and the two dashes. If I
use the 'text' signature instead of the text file signature that
produces six blank lines between the other persons quoted text and the
two dashes before I ever start typing.
Using MesNews this time which looks right.
'tis odd and no idea why yours should be different to mine. Maybe it's
not Pan but a library dependency? Have you asked in the Pan mailing list?
One reply from the pan mailing list:

-------------------------------------------

At least in my case, that's because I tend to manually add/delete lines
as necessary to leave a single blank line above the signature. (On short
posts it'll be manual delete as there's too many blank lines, but on
longer posts I guess I often arrow down instead of hitting enter twice to
start a new paragraph, so I often end up manually adding lines to keep
the signature as, effectively, the last paragraph.)

IOW, that's a long term if minor bug that has been there as long as I can
remember. In fact, I /think/ I remember the old C-based pan, 0.14.x era
(upstream 0.14.x), before the C++ rewrite that was introduced with 0.90,
behaving similarly. I suppose most long-term users have gotten as used
to it as I have, and simply add/delete lines manually without hardly
thinking of it any longer, just as I do.

But if someone wishes to create a patch to fix it, say making it three
blank lines with the cursor on the second, ready to type in the reply, I
imagine it'd be taken pretty fast, and I imagine that'd be a reasonably
easy patch, likely easy enough I could do it myself if it bothered me
enough, and I don't make any claims at being a coder, certainly not C++,
tho I did have a pascal course in college, 30-some years ago. But as I
said half the time I'd probably end up manually fixing up the sig
separation anyway, so it's too minor to bother patching, here.
--
Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman

-------------------------------------------------

To me that kind of sums up Linux, nothing is quite polished off. Mint is
striving to be a very good operating system and a real alternative for
disillusioned windows users but it is being let down by third party
apathy.

I really want to break away completely from Microsoft and windows only
software but it is so hard to give up all those nice touches that just
work, e.g., I use Foxit Reader for reading books and magazines at lot.
In windows you can set facing pages (to see those two page spreads of
single photos) and there is a separate cover page view, so every time you
open a file it remembers and you see the cover then facing pages as you
would normally read a book/magazine. That option is not there in the
Linux version, so you get the cover page and the next page together then
your facing pages after that are out of sync. There are ways around that
but it just makes the experience that more frustrating to work with.

Evolution is a good alternative to Outlook but you cannot leave it
running all day in the background as it just throws wobblies, so you have
to shut it down and re-opening every so often.

The only program I never have trouble with is Firefox, the add-ons work
and it syncs perfectly with the windows version.

With all the kerfuffle about windows 10 going on during the past year it
is a great opportunity for the Linux brigade to show their strengths and
win over the windows dis-illusionists but I don't see that eagerness to
impress.
--
mick
DaveG
2016-08-28 22:04:14 UTC
Permalink
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Dave, a small problem you may recall from awhile ago that I
never resolved was the extra carraige returns in the signature
ver 0.139.
I am still experiencing it in the updated 0.140.
The bug was reported back in 2008
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554178
I notice that your signature has always been three lines from
any quoted text instead of the five that I suffer from.
In your Pan's posting profile what signature TYPE do you use?
I have tried text and text file but they make no difference.
There has been a lot of fixes in the latest release but not the
one I wanted and I have not noticed anything else that has
changed or made a difference.
Pan 0.140, sig type text file.
thanks, same here, text file.
must be mint that is causing the problem, was the same in 17.3 KDE,
now using Cinnamon 18.
FWIW your thread starter had 4 blank lines before the sig and this
one I'm replying to had only 3
Ah, that's because the first post was a Text signature and the
second post was a Text File signature. I'll stick with the
signature done in a text file as that does not look so bad. Thanks
for the feedback.
I wonder if the text signature displays an extra blank line because
you put an LF at the end of the text you typed in?
Misunderstood with my first reply at 19.14.
No, I am not putting an extra line feed at the end of my typed text.
When I open follow up to newsgroup there is a blank line below the
other persons quoted text, then a blinking cursor ready for me to
start typing my reply on the second line, then three blank lines below
the cursor, then the two dashes and then the signature, that's five
blank lines between the last line of quoted text and the two dashes.
If I use the 'text' signature instead of the text file signature that
produces six blank lines between the other persons quoted text and the
two dashes before I ever start typing.
Using MesNews this time which looks right.
'tis odd and no idea why yours should be different to mine. Maybe it's
not Pan but a library dependency? Have you asked in the Pan mailing list?
-------------------------------------------
At least in my case, that's because I tend to manually add/delete lines
as necessary to leave a single blank line above the signature. (On
short posts it'll be manual delete as there's too many blank lines, but
on longer posts I guess I often arrow down instead of hitting enter
twice to start a new paragraph, so I often end up manually adding lines
to keep the signature as, effectively, the last paragraph.)
IOW, that's a long term if minor bug that has been there as long as I
can remember. In fact, I /think/ I remember the old C-based pan, 0.14.x
era (upstream 0.14.x), before the C++ rewrite that was introduced with
0.90, behaving similarly. I suppose most long-term users have gotten as
used to it as I have, and simply add/delete lines manually without
hardly thinking of it any longer, just as I do.
But if someone wishes to create a patch to fix it, say making it three
blank lines with the cursor on the second, ready to type in the reply, I
imagine it'd be taken pretty fast, and I imagine that'd be a reasonably
easy patch, likely easy enough I could do it myself if it bothered me
enough, and I don't make any claims at being a coder, certainly not C++,
tho I did have a pascal course in college, 30-some years ago. But as I
said half the time I'd probably end up manually fixing up the sig
separation anyway, so it's too minor to bother patching, here.
--
Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman
-------------------------------------------------
To me that kind of sums up Linux, nothing is quite polished off. Mint
is striving to be a very good operating system and a real alternative
for disillusioned windows users but it is being let down by third party
apathy.
I really want to break away completely from Microsoft and windows only
software but it is so hard to give up all those nice touches that just
work, e.g., I use Foxit Reader for reading books and magazines at lot.
In windows you can set facing pages (to see those two page spreads of
single photos) and there is a separate cover page view, so every time
you open a file it remembers and you see the cover then facing pages as
you would normally read a book/magazine. That option is not there in
the Linux version, so you get the cover page and the next page together
then your facing pages after that are out of sync. There are ways around
that but it just makes the experience that more frustrating to work
with.
Evolution is a good alternative to Outlook but you cannot leave it
running all day in the background as it just throws wobblies, so you
have to shut it down and re-opening every so often.
The only program I never have trouble with is Firefox, the add-ons work
and it syncs perfectly with the windows version.
With all the kerfuffle about windows 10 going on during the past year it
is a great opportunity for the Linux brigade to show their strengths and
win over the windows dis-illusionists but I don't see that eagerness to
impress.
To an extent, you are right, but in this instance not quite for the right
reasons. In Pan, for example, when I click on reply the new post compose
window opens up either quoting the selected text, if any, or the whole
post if not. There are exactly three blank lines between the quoted text
and the sig and the cursor is set at the middle line. That's why I
suspect it's not the fault of Pan but some other library it's calling.
You have the same version of Pan as me but you use Linux and I use
FreeBSD so it's likely an external event causing the problem or maybe
even the compiler used to build it. Have you tried out Pan from any
other live boot OS to see if it behaves differently?

As for other apps not always being as "polished" in some instances as
some Windows apps, I think that might have more to do with the whole
ethos of open source rather than apathy or laziness. Windows apps tend
to be quite heavily monetised in one form or another with advertising,
restricted time useage, reduced functionality etc. so the authors are far
more likely to be making a living at it or at least have financial
incentive to reach the top of a very crowded pyramid with enormous
amounts of dross underneath it. The upside of that is that they have to
compete harder to make it to the top, the downside is that they need the
resources to compete to make it to the top and that means generating
income.

The more polished *nix apps are the more mainstream ones where the
industry is allocating resources to the development. In some instances
I've seen individuals or small businesses who have a specific need offer
cash "bounties" for development work.

PS, I'm subscribed to the Pan list, but I don't always check my main
email every day, especially weekends. I'll reply to Duncan with the
relevant bits above and see if that triggers any other responses from
users of other incantations of Linux etc.
--
Resistance is not futile. Its Voltage divided by Current
It's the (Ohms) Law.
mick
2016-08-29 00:50:09 UTC
Permalink
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Post by DaveG
Post by mick
Dave, a small problem you may recall from awhile ago that I
never resolved was the extra carraige returns in the signature
ver 0.139.
I am still experiencing it in the updated 0.140.
The bug was reported back in 2008
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554178
I notice that your signature has always been three lines from
any quoted text instead of the five that I suffer from.
In your Pan's posting profile what signature TYPE do you use?
I have tried text and text file but they make no difference.
There has been a lot of fixes in the latest release but not the
one I wanted and I have not noticed anything else that has
changed or made a difference.
Pan 0.140, sig type text file.
thanks, same here, text file.
must be mint that is causing the problem, was the same in 17.3 KDE,
now using Cinnamon 18.
FWIW your thread starter had 4 blank lines before the sig and this
one I'm replying to had only 3
Ah, that's because the first post was a Text signature and the
second post was a Text File signature. I'll stick with the
signature done in a text file as that does not look so bad. Thanks
for the feedback.
I wonder if the text signature displays an extra blank line because
you put an LF at the end of the text you typed in?
Misunderstood with my first reply at 19.14.
No, I am not putting an extra line feed at the end of my typed text.
When I open follow up to newsgroup there is a blank line below the
other persons quoted text, then a blinking cursor ready for me to
start typing my reply on the second line, then three blank lines below
the cursor, then the two dashes and then the signature, that's five
blank lines between the last line of quoted text and the two dashes.
If I use the 'text' signature instead of the text file signature that
produces six blank lines between the other persons quoted text and the
two dashes before I ever start typing.
Using MesNews this time which looks right.
'tis odd and no idea why yours should be different to mine. Maybe it's
not Pan but a library dependency? Have you asked in the Pan mailing list?
-------------------------------------------
At least in my case, that's because I tend to manually add/delete lines
as necessary to leave a single blank line above the signature. (On
short posts it'll be manual delete as there's too many blank lines, but
on longer posts I guess I often arrow down instead of hitting enter
twice to start a new paragraph, so I often end up manually adding lines
to keep the signature as, effectively, the last paragraph.)
IOW, that's a long term if minor bug that has been there as long as I
can remember. In fact, I /think/ I remember the old C-based pan, 0.14.x
era (upstream 0.14.x), before the C++ rewrite that was introduced with
0.90, behaving similarly. I suppose most long-term users have gotten as
used to it as I have, and simply add/delete lines manually without
hardly thinking of it any longer, just as I do.
But if someone wishes to create a patch to fix it, say making it three
blank lines with the cursor on the second, ready to type in the reply, I
imagine it'd be taken pretty fast, and I imagine that'd be a reasonably
easy patch, likely easy enough I could do it myself if it bothered me
enough, and I don't make any claims at being a coder, certainly not C++,
tho I did have a pascal course in college, 30-some years ago. But as I
said half the time I'd probably end up manually fixing up the sig
separation anyway, so it's too minor to bother patching, here.
--
Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman
-------------------------------------------------
To me that kind of sums up Linux, nothing is quite polished off. Mint
is striving to be a very good operating system and a real alternative
for disillusioned windows users but it is being let down by third party
apathy.
I really want to break away completely from Microsoft and windows only
software but it is so hard to give up all those nice touches that just
work, e.g., I use Foxit Reader for reading books and magazines at lot.
In windows you can set facing pages (to see those two page spreads of
single photos) and there is a separate cover page view, so every time
you open a file it remembers and you see the cover then facing pages as
you would normally read a book/magazine. That option is not there in
the Linux version, so you get the cover page and the next page together
then your facing pages after that are out of sync. There are ways around
that but it just makes the experience that more frustrating to work
with.
Evolution is a good alternative to Outlook but you cannot leave it
running all day in the background as it just throws wobblies, so you
have to shut it down and re-opening every so often.
The only program I never have trouble with is Firefox, the add-ons work
and it syncs perfectly with the windows version.
With all the kerfuffle about windows 10 going on during the past year it
is a great opportunity for the Linux brigade to show their strengths and
win over the windows dis-illusionists but I don't see that eagerness to
impress.
To an extent, you are right, but in this instance not quite for the right
reasons. In Pan, for example, when I click on reply the new post compose
window opens up either quoting the selected text, if any, or the whole
post if not. There are exactly three blank lines between the quoted text
and the sig and the cursor is set at the middle line. That's why I
suspect it's not the fault of Pan but some other library it's calling.
You have the same version of Pan as me but you use Linux and I use
FreeBSD so it's likely an external event causing the problem or maybe
even the compiler used to build it. Have you tried out Pan from any
other live boot OS to see if it behaves differently?
No, I had not thought of doing that. When I get some spare time I will
give it a try.
Post by DaveG
As for other apps not always being as "polished" in some instances as
some Windows apps, I think that might have more to do with the whole
ethos of open source rather than apathy or laziness. Windows apps tend
to be quite heavily monetised in one form or another with advertising,
restricted time useage, reduced functionality etc. so the authors are far
more likely to be making a living at it or at least have financial
incentive to reach the top of a very crowded pyramid with enormous
amounts of dross underneath it. The upside of that is that they have to
compete harder to make it to the top, the downside is that they need the
resources to compete to make it to the top and that means generating
income.
I appreciate that getting a free model is not going to be as refined as
something that is paid for but I am willing to and often donate a fair
percentage of what an equivalent commercial package would cost. In
fact I came across a windows file renaming freebie awhile ago that was
very good and donated a tenner, after using it for week I was even more
impressed that it did everything I threw at it I went back and donated
another tenner because I couldn't find a commercial version that was
anywhere near it for features and ease of use.

Maybe we need something just above the free open source. Linux pro
range of software for under a tenner? I am sure there are many people
out there who would be willing to part with small amounts for better
written 'open source'(sic) software who would not necessarily donate
freely of their own accord.
The future of windows looks as though it could become unaffordable for
the average person with software going towards a subscription model if
they want more than just the operating system's bare essentials of word
processing, image manipulation, video editing and so forth. I was
amazed when I just added up the many programs I use on a regular basis.
they are not all the latest versions and don't need to be. but if
those became a subscription model then there would be no way I could
justify paying what seems to be about eight pounds a month each (going
by todays prices for the likes of Adobe and Office365)
Post by DaveG
The more polished *nix apps are the more mainstream ones where the
industry is allocating resources to the development. In some instances
I've seen individuals or small businesses who have a specific need offer
cash "bounties" for development work.
PS, I'm subscribed to the Pan list, but I don't always check my main
email every day, especially weekends. I'll reply to Duncan with the
relevant bits above and see if that triggers any other responses from
users of other incantations of Linux etc.
I was going to give you the link to the post in the pan users group but
when I went to Outlook I see you have already been busy posting ;-)
--
mick
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