Leading spaces in postings

In the forums, the inability to have postings preserve spacing can be very awkward, for instance when trying to post a table or an example program.

Would it be possible to have a mode which deleted trailing whitespace on each line, but didn't mess with leading or intermediate space? For instance with a [hardspace] command, which could work like:

[hardspace]
.....If............The
.....Dots........Were
.....Spaces.....These
.....Rows........Would
.....Still..........Line
.....Up
[/hardspace]

Originally posted by iamatiger
In the forums, the inability to have postings preserve spacing can be very awkward, for instance when trying to post a table or an example program.

Would it be possible to have a mode which deleted trailing whitespace on each line, but didn't mess with leading or intermediate space? For instance with a [hardspace] command, which could work like:

[ha ...[text shortened]... .....Spaces.....These
.....Rows........Would
.....Still..........Line
.....Up
[/hardspace]

[courier]It can be solved with an alternative typeface. Like courier. Then every character would take up equal space.
There is a tag in the html codes (I think, or is it [typeface]?) that looks like this that gives the wanted result.[/courier]

Originally posted by iamatiger
In the forums, the inability to have postings preserve spacing can be very awkward, for instance when trying to post a table or an example program.

Would it be possible to have a mode which deleted trailing whitespace on each line, but didn't mess with leading or intermediate space? For instance with a [hardspace] command, which could work like:

[ha ...[text shortened]... .....Spaces.....These
.....Rows........Would
.....Still..........Line
.....Up
[/hardspace]

The HTML tag we need here is the <pre>. In the same way that [ b] gives us the <b> tag we should have a [pre] to give us the <pre> tag.

The best you can get at the moment is by using the [ quote ] tag - like this -
[ quote]

.....If............The
.....Dots........Were
.....Spaces.....These
.....Rows........Would
.....Still..........Line
.....Up

[/ quote][/b]

All it does is provide some indenting (can be nested) - but it's no good for table formatting.

Originally posted by orangutan
The HTML tag we need here is the <pre>. In the same way that [b][ b] gives us the <b> tag we should have a [pre] to give us the <pre> tag.

The best you can get at the moment is by using the [ quote ] tag - like this -
[ quote]
[quote].....If............The
.....Dots........Were
.....Spaces.....These
.....Rows........Would
.....Still.... ...[text shortened]...
All it does is provide some indenting (can be nested) - but it's no good for table formatting.[/b]

Thanks Orangutan. [ quote ] sort of works, but inserts an irritating automatic empty line. I didn't know about the html tag <pre> before, but that is indeed what we need, I've recommended your post.

Originally posted by FabianFnas
[courier]It can be solved with an alternative typeface. Like courier. Then every character would take up equal space.
There is a tag in the html codes (I think, or is it [typeface]?) that looks like this that gives the wanted result.[/courier]

The problem is that multiple consecutive spaces are turned into 1 space automatically by the conversion into HTML, irrespective of what font they are in.

You mean like this?

        is this what you mean?
        I can do it. But I am clever.

      If       the     dots    were     spaces
      then   these  do      line      up


I bet you would love to know how I do that?

OK I'll tell you - it's a pain but it works.

Hold down the ALT key and type on the number pad 255.
release the ALT key and the space produced stays.

You can get other symbols - ½ ¼ is 171 and 172.
Some work - some don't. The space thingy works.

Wow! Thanks!

Originally posted by iamatiger

.....If............The
.....Dots........Were
.....Spaces.....These
.....Rows........Would
.....Still..........Line
.....Up

William Shatner?? 😕