Scott, On 02-Dec-19 09:36, Scott O. Bradner wrote: > > >> On Dec 1, 2019, at 3:33 PM, Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> >> On 02-Dec-19 08:09, John Levine wrote: >>> In article <1a1726cf-70a0-019d-1138-c5e22f258d4d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> you write: >>>> I thought the format was a compromise between US Letter format, A4 >>>> format, and printers. >>> >>> I thought it was 72 characters because that's how many you got on a >>> punch card, leaving 8 for the sequence number. >> >> Keith is right and it was one of Postel+Reynolds's wiser decisions. The only case where it goes wrong is with software or printers that fail to recognise the FF (form feed) character correctly. >> >> Phill is correct that it wastes some white space; that's the price of fitting into both paper sizes. When I print drafts, which is rarely, I do it "booklet" style which limits waste paper considerably. >> >> As we discussed 3 years ago, numbered pagination is useful in a printable format but irrelevant in a screen-only format. > > except for references - section numbers are frequently far too far apart when you want to point someone to a particular > chunk of text Yes. I sometimes use page numbers for that reason, like https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3056#page-15 (random example with no significance). For new-format HTML, any internal <xref/> should generate a link. Brian > > Scott > >> >> Can we stop now? >> >> Brian >>> >>>> What would be parochial would be to assume that nobody in the world >>>> needs to print RFCs using mechanical printers any more - that everyone >>>> in the world should have laser printers, ample power for their fusers, >>>> and a generous supply of suitable paper and toner - >>> >>> I think that if you price all the printers made in the past decade or >>> two, you'll find that there are a lot of laser and inkjet printers and >>> close to nothing else, certainly nothing restricted to fixed pitch >>> text. The only mechanical printers I recall seeing in recent years >>> are antique Okidata dot matrix units printing whatever it is they >>> print at airport gates. >>> >>> R's, >>> John >>> >>> >> > >
