[Pan-users] Re: Feature Request: configurable quoting character

[Toby A Inkster]

On Sat, 15 Feb 2003 15:39:34 +0100, Torstein Sunde wrote:

> Toby A Inkster wrote:
>> It would be nice to quote text:
>> | like this
>> 
>> or maybe:
>> : like this
>> 
>> or even:
>> TAI> like this
> 
> I have assumed you're talking about how quotes are transmitted, and not
> just how quoting is *displayed*.

You assume correctly.
 
> I strongly object to introducing non-standard quotation marks in Pan.

But they are not non-standard. Indeed, no recognised standards body has
ever set a standard for quoting. ":" has been used by tin as the default
quote character for $DEITY knows how long. "|" is also a commonly used
quote character.

Quoting with initials is considered standard practice on Fidonet. Further,
proper (non-nested) consistant quoting with initials uses O(1) space,
whereas quoting with ">" uses O(n) space, for n levels of nested quotes.
They also prevent misattributions.

As it happens, I threw that last one in frivilously. What I was really
after is the first two.

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