Why Don't My Posts Have Paragraphs?

glennmac · Jan 23, 2002

Re: Why Don\'t My Posts Have Paragraphs?

Ok, after the colon I will do one Control-M and one Control-L

id so. I will now do two Control-M's and two Control-L's

id so. I will now do two Enters:Did so. I will now do two Returns

id so. The Control-M's and the Returns both create line breaks. The Control-L's do nothing that I can see. The Enters print square boxes as if in a symbol font. I will now do two Control-L's, two Control-M's and two Returns

id so. Though I don't know why I'm doing this. Will now copy to Text Edit.

Harv · Jan 24, 2002

Re: Why Don\'t My Posts Have Paragraphs?

<Ctrl>-M and <Ctrl>-L. Those two are the equivalent of Carriage return and line feed

Ummm... that would give you carriage return and form feed.

Line feed is generated by <Ctrl>-J.

Okay, Glenn. Here's what I'm seeing --

Your return key results in a proper CR character, but a backslash (\) is being inserted in front of it. Your enter key generates an ETX character, which is just what it should do on a Mac. It's a non-displayable character which has no meaning to your browser. The box you see is the standard "undefined character" symbol (at least on a Mac), which is what should display for ETX.

The backslash is a common "escape" character, which means "take the next character literally, without interpretation". Somewhere along the line, I believe this is preventing your CR's from being converted to HTML line breaks ( ). Muhammad would know where better than I.

So, the question is, where the heck are these backslashes coming from? Assuming it's not an artifact of the copy and paste process, is this a browser option I'm not familiar with? Which browser are you using? Maybe there's an OS X option that says to escape carriage returns?

And my final question to you, Glenn -- this isn't one of those "let's-keep-Harv-and-GlueGuy-awake-nights" pranks you love to play, is it? /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

We're getting closer. Asymptotically.

Gatorboy · Jan 24, 2002

Re: Why Don\'t My Posts Have Paragraphs?

Just an off-the-wall thought....Could the keyboard be a programmable type, that somehow got the Enter or Return key reprogrammed causing this problem?

If so, there should be some key sequence that resets the keyboard back to it's initial state.

LazyK · Jan 24, 2002

Re: Why Don\'t My Posts Have Paragraphs?

Harv...as an incurable pedant, I cannot help but compliment your use of the word, "asymptotically."The word-picture you draw with just this one geometric referent gives clarity to a paragraphically challenging discussion. Although I can't add to the subject being addressed, I felt compelled to recognize semantic excellence.

GlueGuy · Jan 25, 2002

Re: Why Don\'t My Posts Have Paragraphs?

Harv,

re: <CTRL>-M and <CTRL>-L. Right you are. That's what I get for calling that up from memory. The <CTRL>-L should have been a <CTRL>-J. My bad. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

re: Asymptotically /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

There you go again. I think we will have to give Harv the "big words award" once again. I (vaguely) remember this from geometry, but double-checked my Websters. This is what I got:

Main Entry: as·ymp·tote
Pronunciation: 'a-s&m(p)-"tOt
Function: noun
Etymology: probably from (assumed) New Latin asymptotus, from Greek asymptOtos not meeting, from a- + sympiptein to meet -- more at SYMPTOM
Date: 1656
: a straight line associated with a curve such that as a point moves along an infinite branch of the curve the distance from the point to the line approaches zero and the slope of the curve at the point approaches the slope of the line
- as·ymp·tot·ic /"a-s&m(p)-'tä-tik/ adjective
- as·ymp·tot·i·cal·ly /-ti-k(&-)lE/ adverb

So what you mean to say, is that we are getting closer, but we may never reach a conclusion? I get the drift.... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Glenmac,

Harv's exactly right in his analysis. Your browser is inserting a "\" before every carriage return. So, even though the carriage returns are there, they are getting ignored.

My text editor shows this as your text:

\f0\fs24 \cf0 Ok, after the colon I will do one Control-M and one Control-L:\
Did so. I will now do two Control-M's and two Control-L's:\
\
Did so. I will now do two Enters:Did so. I will now do two Returns:\
\
Did so. The Control-M's and the Returns both create line breaks. The Control-L's do nothing that I can see. The Enters print square boxes as if in a symbol font. I will now do two Control-L's, two Control-M's and two Returns:\
\
\
\
Did so. Though I don't know why I'm doing this. Will now copy to Text Edit.}

Very curious.

Is there some setting in the browser that could cause this? What browser are you using?

MDNick · Jan 25, 2002

Re: Why Don\'t My Posts Have Paragraphs?

Yeah, I agree, your getting closer. But your never gonna get there, asymptotically. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

glennmac · Jan 26, 2002

Re: Why Don\'t My Posts Have Paragraphs?

At the risk of approaching the limits of my vocabulary, I assume Harv was speaking hyperbolically, not predictively, when he para-graphed asymptotically.

So you think its my browser or my operating system? My browser is IE 5.1 for Mac. The operating system is OS X 10.1.2.

If it is my browser, can I test this by trying to create carriage returns in private messages here or in posts on other forums? I get carriage returns in Word and my emails. Did they show up in my attached text message?

I posted this message, which again ignored my carriage returns, and then edited it, adding this sentence, to see if carriage returns might appear in the edited message, although I don't know whty it should.

glennmac · Jan 26, 2002

Re: Why Don\'t My Posts Have Paragraphs?

HEY! None of those carriage returns showed up in the original post, but they showed up in the edit. What gives??????????

GlueGuy · Jan 26, 2002

Re: Why Don\'t My Posts Have Paragraphs?

What gives??????????

I suspect that when you got through whatever processing is involved in editing the message, one of Muhammad's utilities ignores the escapes, and (in effect), puts back the carriage returns.

Maybe you should try the latest Netscape browser? I've seen some pretty good reviews of the 6.2(?) version.

Harv · Jan 26, 2002

Re: Why Don\'t My Posts Have Paragraphs?

None of those carriage returns showed up in the original post, but they showed up in the edit

When you edit, your text appears inside a "text edit" box, which interprets the text directly.
Your final post gets interpreted by some magical TBN software which converts carriage returns to HTML line breaks ( ). The current reigning theory is that the mysterious back-slashes are confusing the magic, so no line breaks get inserted.

I may have goofed up an email I sent to you where I described how to save the preview page as source (File menu / Save As..., then select Source or HTML Source from the popup). The idea here is to eliminate the Copy and Paste operations, since it is remotely possible that that could introduce artifacts, such as the back slashes.

The "asymptotic" remark was merely tangential to the hypotheses postulated thus far.