[Mailman-Developers] Here's a little issue with the news gatewaying: If the n

Barry A. Warsaw barry@digicool.com
Fri, 16 Mar 2001 00:29:08 -0500


>>>>> "JRA" == Jay R Ashworth <jra@baylink.com> writes:

    JRA> Well, no, but you can swim in the Object Orientation, or you
    JRA> can tiptoe through it, and the code I've looked at doesn't
    JRA> look to horribly deep to me.

Python's very cool that way.  It makes OOP about as simple as it can
possibly be.  In fact, I think Python would make a wonderful first or
OOP teaching language.  Jeez, at least much better than C++ or Java.

    JRA> Except make_whatever in Utils; how do you get a hard newline
    JRA> in that damned routine?

You mean Utils.maketext()?  You could set raw=1 which says not to pass
the text to wrap(), and then your template would have to be properly
wrapped already (if it's a plaintext file), or you'd include <p>'s and
<br>'s if it's html.

The rules for wrap() are pretty simple.  Paragraphs are always filled
unless the line begins with whitespace.  Blank lines separate
paragraphs.  That's it.

But I'll admit that wrap() is a bear of an algorithm, and I fear, too
fragile to muck with.  Still it does the job.  Usable, human-friendly
"structured" plaintext is a /hard/ problem, as anybody who's played
with Wiki's StructuredText stuff will attest too.
    
    JRA> The template stuff is one of the weak spots in system
    JRA> operator documentation... and the templates could us a touch
    JRA> of work, too -- no offence to whomever's writing that is...

I completely agree.

-Barry