Howdy,

I have a suggestion for message paging - it would be great if there was a visual seperator, that seperated what was on the previous page vs what is on the current page.

IE: Assuming my screen length is 24, and the header is 4 lines.

If I get a 20 line message - everything is on the 1 page - happy.

If I get a 50 line message, page 2 is all new content, so I know to "continue" reading from the top of the screen. page 3 however is only 6 lines of new content (and 18 lines of old content that I've probably already read). So I find myself scanning through the message to find out where to continue reading on.

(When I start reading a message, I dont know how long it is (and if it was written as 50 lines long in the header or a scroll bar) I dont think that would help.)

What would help, if there was a visual queue (for page 3 on this example), so that I could visually see where page 2 ended and what was new for page 3. I was thinking, I simple way would be to "dull" the page 2 content on page 3. (IE: Page 2 content is dark gray, while page 3 is light gray).

I guess you could even put a >>-- character (or something like it) on the left side (or maybe right) - again in a different color, as a visual seperator.

Just some ideas...
...ëîå*

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Re: Message paging - a suggestion
By: Alterego to Digital Man on Sat Aug 17 2019 09:37 am

Howdy,

I have a suggestion for message paging - it would be great if there was a visual seperator, that seperated what was on the previous page vs what is on the current page.

IE: Assuming my screen length is 24, and the header is 4 lines.

If I get a 20 line message - everything is on the 1 page - happy.

If I get a 50 line message, page 2 is all new content, so I know to "continue" reading from the top of the screen. page 3 however is only 6 lines of new content (and 18 lines of old content that I've probably already read). So I find myself scanning through the message to find out where to continue reading on.

When reading messages, I usually the down-arrow key to scroll down a line a time. Then I never lose my place.

(When I start reading a message, I dont know how long it is (and if it was written as 50 lines long in the header or a scroll bar) I dont think that would help.)

What would help, if there was a visual queue (for page 3 on this example), so that I could visually see where page 2 ended and what was new for page 3. I was thinking, I simple way would be to "dull" the page 2 content on page 3. (IE: Page 2 content is dark gray, while page 3 is light gray).

I guess you could even put a >>-- character (or something like it) on the left side (or maybe right) - again in a different color, as a visual seperator.

I think when using a full-screen message viewer (like the one I've been developing but haven't put in CVS yet), it's less of an issue and there are other indicators of how far you are through the current message text. I think Nightfox's message reader has a scroll bar with indicators of how much and which portion of the current message text is being viewed.

digital man

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Re: Message paging - a suggestion
By: Alterego to Digital Man on Sat Aug 17 2019 09:37 am

I have a suggestion for message paging - it would be great if there was a visual seperator, that seperated what was on the previous page vs what is on the current page.

IE: Assuming my screen length is 24, and the header is 4 lines.

If I get a 20 line message - everything is on the 1 page - happy.

If I get a 50 line message, page 2 is all new content, so I know to "continue" reading from the top of the screen. page 3 however is only 6 lines of new content (and 18 lines of old content that I've probably already read). So I find myself scanning through the message to find out where to continue reading on.

Digital Man has been working on a newer reader interface that will include scrolling (for ANSI users), and perhaps something like this could go into that new interface. He put a video on YouTube showing it, and there's a line where it writes how much progress thorugh the message you've made. That can give you a clue about where to start on the page. In my message reader (which supports scrolling) I opted to use a scrollbar on the side, which I think gives a pretty good visual indicator about how far you are through a message and gives a similar clue about where to start on the page when you go to the next page.

A line separating the pages could be useful too..

Nightfox

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Re: Message paging - a suggestion
By: Digital Man to Alterego on Fri Aug 16 2019 05:11 pm

When reading messages, I usually the down-arrow key to scroll down a line a time. Then I never lose my place.

Arrow down key! I learned something new today. Pretty slick. I know the Q key aborts which is nice to have. With alot of other software you are stuck scrolling until you get to the end or pound on the space bar or ctrl-c perhaps. Areafix reply netmails that are 300 lines long are not too fun on VADV.

Immortal

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