Re: Character mangling test
Re: Character mangling test
- Subject: Re: Character mangling test
- From: email@hidden
- Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2001 12:06:42 EST
In a message dated 2/17/01 8:52:15 AM, I wrote:
>
I am sending this email to see for myself exactly how certain characters get
>
mangled by the list server. Read or ignore, your choice.
Well, that test was a miserable failure or a rousing success, depending on
one's point of view. NOT ONE CHARACTER MADE IT THRU UNSCATHED! Worse, as many
of you know, many of them mapped to otherwise normal but contextually
meaningless (or wrong) characters. And worse still, AOL mangled several of
the characters before they even left their system.
I tried Richard 23's script. It mostly works, but (with no offense, and with
many thanks for his efforts), it's a kludge. It will confuse newbies and make
this list labor heavy and clique-ish.
Here's what's necessary for a useable fix.
Must be easy.
Must be intuitive.
Must be universal (all platforms, all email clients).
Scripts must be AMAP (As Much As Possible) freely copiable and pasteable
between email (sent and received) and anyone's script editor of choice
without alteration.
For many, this may involve changing your scripting habits. The alternative is
continued frustration and unreadable scripts. By pure chance, I find I myself
have been (generally) producing list friendly scripts all along.
Here are my specific suggestions (several previously offered by others) for
specific characters (pertinent ones first, original fuller list next).
-----------------------------
[how to type original character on US keyboard / Geneva] (description)
what to type instead
-----------------------------
[option-,] (less than or equals)
" is less than or equal to "
-----------------------------
[option-.] (greater than or equals)
" is greater than or equal to "
-----------------------------
[option-return] (the line continuation character)
keep your lines short; I can live with ==>, but can newbies?
-----------------------------
[option-\] (a left chevron)
<< hopefully, newbies will never need to contend with these
-----------------------------
[option-shift-\] or [option-|] (a right chevron)
>
> hopefully, newbies will never need to contend with these
-----------------------------
[option-=] (a not equals symbol)
" is not equal to "
-----------------------------
[option-z] (omega)
[option-z] no alternative, but should be needed rarely
-----------------------------
And suggestions based on my original posting, in that order.
-----------------------------
[how to type original character on US keyboard / Geneva] (description)
what to type instead
-----------------------------
[option-,] (less than or equals)
" is less than or equal to "
-----------------------------
[option-.] (greater than or equals)
" is greater than or equal to "
-----------------------------
[option-/] (division symbol as taught in school)
" / "
-----------------------------
[option-shift-,] or [option-<] (a high hyphen - who knows the right name?)
who needs this anyway?
-----------------------------
[option-shift-.] or [option->] (umlaut)
who needs this anyway?
-----------------------------
[option-shift-/] or [option-?] (inverted question mark)
who needs this anyway?
-----------------------------
[option-;] (ellipsis)
" ... "who needs this anyway?
-----------------------------
[option-shift-;] or [option-:] (U with accent - who knows the real name?)
who needs this anyway?
-----------------------------
[option-'] (ae ligature)
who needs this anyway?
-----------------------------
[option-"] (AE ligature)
who needs this anyway?
-----------------------------
[option-return] (the line continuation character)
keep your lines short; I can live with ==>, but can newbies?
-----------------------------
[option-[] (left double smart or curly quotes)
don't use them
-----------------------------
[option-shift-[] or [option-{] (right double smart or curly quotes)
don't use them
-----------------------------
[option-]] (left single curly quote)
don't use this
-----------------------------
[option-shift-]] or [option-}] (right curly quote or apostrophe)
don't use this
-----------------------------
[option-\] (a left chevron)
<< hopefully, newbies will never need to contend with these
-----------------------------
[option-shift-\] or [option-|] (a right chevron)
>
> hopefully, newbies will never need to contend with these
-----------------------------
[option-=] (a not equals symbol)
" is not equal to "
-----------------------------
[option-shift-=] or [option-+] (a plus minus symbol)
this is unnecessary in scripting AFAIK
-----------------------------
Well, that does it for the right side of the QWERTY keyboard. Now lets do a
few favorites
-----------------------------
[option-2] (trademark symbol)
(TM)
-----------------------------
[option-shift-2] or [option-@] (Euro symbol)
" Euro " (this needs fixing if we want to retain Europe)
-----------------------------
[option-z] (omega)
[option-z] no alternative, but should be needed rarely
-----------------------------
Jeff Baumann
email@hidden
www.linkedresources.com
10 Days, 13 Hours, 6 Minutes
How is it going to end?