Re: [Pan-users] signature when replying to Usenet posts

[Duncan]

mick posted on Sat, 27 Aug 2016 15:20:25 +0100 as excerpted:

> Signature problem with Pan 0.13.9/Linux Mint KDE 17.3 and Pan 0.14/Linux
> Mint Cinnamon 18 using a signature saved as a text file.

FWIW that's weird version numbering.  Presumably Mint or its upstream 
distros Ubuntu or Debian change the upstream pan version numbers for some 
reason, and the given 0.13.9 and 0.14 refer to upstream pan 0.139 and 
0.140, with 0.140 being current release, I think.  (I'm running live-git 
pan and have lost track of the current release, but my live-git, which I 
last updated on Aug 13, reports 0.141 and the git commit, as shown in my 
headers since I follow the list as a newsgroup with pan.)

> When I open follow up to a newsgroup post there is a blank line below
> the other persons quoted text, then a blinking cursor ready for me to
> start typing my reply on the second line, then three blank lines below
> the cursor, then the two dashes and then the signature, that's five
> lines between the last line of quoted text and the two dashes.  If I use
> the 'text' signature instead of a 'text file' signature that produces
> six blank lines between the other persons quoted text and the two dashes
> before I ever start typing.
> This does not seem normal.  Posts I see from other Pan users have only
> one blank line between their last line of text and the two dashes. When
> making new posts there are four blank lines between the top of the page
> and the two dashes.

At least in my case, that's because I tend to manually add/delete lines 
as necessary to leave a single blank line above the signature.  (On short 
posts it'll be manual delete as there's too many blank lines, but on 
longer posts I guess I often arrow down instead of hitting enter twice to 
start a new paragraph, so I often end up manually adding lines to keep 
the signature as, effectively, the last paragraph.)

IOW, that's a long term if minor bug that has been there as long as I can 
remember.  In fact, I /think/ I remember the old C-based pan, 0.14.x era 
(upstream 0.14.x), before the C++ rewrite that was introduced with 0.90, 
behaving similarly.  I suppose most long-term users have gotten as used 
to it as I have, and simply add/delete lines manually without hardly 
thinking of it any longer, just as I do.

But if someone wishes to create a patch to fix it, say making it three 
blank lines with the cursor on the second, ready to type in the reply, I 
imagine it'd be taken pretty fast, and I imagine that'd be a reasonably 
easy patch, likely easy enough I could do it myself if it bothered me 
enough, and I don't make any claims at being a coder, certainly not C++, 
tho I did have a pascal course in college, 30-some years ago.  But as I 
said half the time I'd probably end up manually fixing up the sig 
separation anyway, so it's too minor to bother patching, here. 

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman