[X-Newbies] Top posing in mail?

[Steven Rogers]

On May 19, 2005, at 4:48 AM, Jamie Kahn Genet wrote:

> Steven Rogers <srogers1 at austin.rr.com> wrote:
>
>> On May 18, 2005, at 4:21 AM, Jamie Kahn Genet wrote:
>>
>>> Steven Rogers <srogers1 at austin.rr.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> So what's the deal with Mail now doing replies as top-posting in
>>>> Tiger (i.e., the cursor is at the top) ?!
>>>>
>>>> I'd hoped that 10.4.1 was going to fix it, but no joy there. Is  
>>>> there
>>>> at least a setting that changes this?
>>>
>>> Just manually move the insertion point below quoted text.
>>
>> Well, thanks to my years of computing experience, I was able to work
>> that out. But I'm more concerned about the newbies who aren't really
>> aware of the difference.
>
> Sorry, but anyone silly enough not to solve this annoyance by clicking
> the mouse once... well, I'd better not go there ;-)

Well, first of all, the whole point of software design is to prevent  
that sort of thing. If there is a "right" place to put the cursor,  
then the program should damn well put the cursor there, and if there  
are two possible "right" places, then there should be a preference.  
If there's some controversy, the WORST possible solution is to issue  
version X of the program built around the idea that the bottom is the  
right place, and then release version X+1 built around the idea that  
the top is the right place. Whoever made that design choice should be  
beaten with their own spec - and anyone who says the *USER* should  
solve it, should be forced to use Windows forever.

Secondly, have you actually tried it???  Not only is the cursor stuck  
at the bottom, there's some additional tag wrapped around the message  
so that when you click at the bottom, and then hit the backspace key  
to get rid of trailing junk, your cursor hops right over the message  
and back to the top. You have to click back to the bottom *again* to  
edit away trailing crud. So not only does this encourage the newbie  
to top-post, it encourages those who do take the extra step to do it  
"The Right Way" to still leave all the crap on the end of the message  
(as the top-posters are wont to do).

SR