[Ti] Why do URL's die when wrapped?

[Dennis Fazio]

--On Monday, January 27, 2003 07:51 AM -0800 Robert Ameeti <robert at ameeti.net> wrote:

> Why would a email client force a wrap at any particular place? Why would the client not just autowrap to the windows size?

I believe this is a historical artifact to accomodate mailers or displays that have limited display widths (like the old 80 column terminals, which were themselves an artifact of the 80 column punch card which had 80 columns because that was the most IBM could fit, in 1930, on Hollerith's card whose size itself was based on the US $1 bill at the time (late 1800s), so the legend goes. Of course, the Hollerith card was based on the Jacquard silk loom punch card mechanism of the early 1800s, which came from ...  Well, you get the idea.)

The simplest and smallest text editing engines today can easily handle wrap-to-window text. I don't think there's hardly anyone today (except for the Unix command line application folks who already know how do deal with these things) who doesn't have a GUI mail program with such a capability.

But, mail programs still have it included to annoy us into the importance of remembering history. Many allow you to override it. Override in Entourage may be more difficult because Microsoft likes history and has it in there to remind them fondly of IBM and how they suckered them and made their fortune.
--
Dennis Fazio
dfz at mac.com