On Fri, 11 Sep 2009, Bowerbird@aol.com wrote:
greg said:
Or what is the most primitive device in use today
the web-browser.
a web-browser won't wrap the lines on a .txt file, so if the hard-returns were removed from p.g. .txt files, the lines would run off the screen of a web-browser.
try it if you don't believe me.
***
it's absolutely true that project gutenberg should have given users a tool that would remove the hard returns, and it should've done that years ago, but it's also true that the .txt files _should_ have hard-returns in them.
now, i'd suggest that those hard-returns should mimic the ones found in the print-books against which the text was proofed, but that won't help the books already done.
-bowerbird
We did do that years ago, and years before that. We also had very similar discussions years ago. I can't tell you how many times we posted info about different ways to remove hard returns, what they were, etc., etc., etc. As along as there are people who want it all done for them without any knowledge fo how a computer works, this will be an issue, along with background color, font, font size, long or short pages or margins, refresh rates.... mh