Subj : MANWIDTH=64 man man-pages | col -bx
To : Kai Richter
From : Maurice Kinal
Date : Fri May 30 2025 11:36 pm
Hey Kai!
> Within the first readable lines i could guess that you posted the
> result of the subject lines command.
That is correct except I added a few items to the commandline to redirect it into vim. It gives the same result as it does straight to the terminal.
> Some of the command sequences messed up my old fido installation
> completly and makes the output useless for me.
I probably should have posted it the usual way ...
<Esc>:read !MANWIDTH=64 man man-pages | col -bx
not that it would have mattered unless you're using vim as your fidonet editor. From a commandline I would also pipe it through less. The result is exactly the same.
I was toying with the idea of making something like this a method of posting differing documentation in fidonet echoareas but now that I see it I am not all that keen, especially given your result.
Note the first line of the resulting packed MSG reads, "<standard input>:128: warning: table wider than line length minus indentation". I suspect that MANWIDTH=80 is probably a better choice. I also suspect that the 64 column width was intended for smart devices with limited display real estate (columns x lines). If so then I am even less interested in making something like this work given my utter distain for smart devices.
I apoplogize for not anticipating your fido installation's incompatibilty with modern gnu-linux tools.
Life is good,
Maurice
o- -o -o -o
/) (\ (\ (\
^^ ^^ ^^ ^^
... Dreamas sind gewitene, wuniað þa wacran ond þæs woruld healdaþ.
Joys are departed; weaker ones now live and hold the world.
--- GNU bash, version 5.2.37(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
* Origin: Little Mikey's Brain - Ladysmith BC, Canada (1:153/7001)
