[imp] wordwrap message lines at 72

[Jan Schneider]

Zitat von Michael M Slusarz <slusarz at horde.org>:

> Quoting Jan Schneider <jan at horde.org>:
>
>>> sorry... my poor english... i try again
>>>
>>> for example, when i display in imp a mail that i sent from imp in  
>>> reply to other mail, i see the quoted part of the mail wrapped,  
>>> while i see the part that i wrote not wrapped
>>
>> I agree that this is irritating and I still didn't get used to it.  
>> I guess this happens if the original, now quoted, text was not  
>> flowed, while the newer part is. So the old part is hard wrapped,  
>> and the flowed part is, well, flowing.
>>
>> I find it easier to read the way we do it in Whups, and like we  
>> used to do it in IMP, i.e. wrap at 76, even with flowed text. Of  
>> course this causes problems if those lines don't fit into the  
>> window, because of small screens etc. Maybe we could use a  
>> max-width CSS layer for wrapping instead?
>
> Well, you've hit the nail on the head... forcing a wrap of flowed  
> text at 76 characters (or 80 or whatever) results, for probably most  
> screens out there today, in a *bunch* of wasted white space on the  
> right side of the text (if using a LTR language).  This wasted  
> whitespace can be the difference between being able to read the  
> entire message without scrolling (especially in something like  
> dimp's preview window).

The point is that it doesn't help if you get the whole message on the  
screen, but you are losing your lines all the time while reading,  
because they are so long.

Though now that I've digging deeper, it rather seems to be a common  
myth that the optimal line length for reading is 70-80 characters per  
line. See  
http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/72/LineLength.asp for  
example. I guess it doesn't really matter how long the lines are. But  
it still doesn't help if they are of different length, though this  
isn't anything we have any influence on.

> A CSS solution might be useful although it is not going to be a  
> priority for me to implement anytime soon.

Jan.

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