Eric shows a complicated regular expression, but I don't think it will match just --, because this line provides nothing to match the "." and "[^B]", etc. I think the real point is that Eric's idea allows the user to customize the regular expression to match the particular signature line used by his system. If the line is just --, he can use Eric's simple example. If it's something else, another line can be used to look for the match. Since it's not hard for users to find out how their signatures look it should not be hard to set up a pattern that will strip them. Hal
Eric shows a complicated regular expression, but I don't think it will match just --, because this line provides nothing to match the "." and "[^B]", etc.
Instead of these ballooning regexps, how about just using Chael Hall's standardized "end of body" marker? Even if some people had to add it manually to each message, well, that's not a big deal. But I suspect that the people who have sigs being added by BBS software are going to have trouble adding strange header lines, even if they have the regexp expertise to construct them. Anyone who does control their sig, but doesn't want to take the trouble to include it only some of the time, can just add the marker. People might even be able to convince BBS sysops to add it to their autosigs. Or if this just looks too cluttered, maybe the sig-clipper header could just be "Signature-Lines:" -- clip that many, or none by default, and you're done.
Hal
PGP 2 key by finger or e-mail Eli ebrandt@jarthur.claremont.edu
Instead of these ballooning regexps, how about just using Chael Hall's standardized "end of body" marker? Even if some people had to add it manually to each message, well, that's not a big deal. But I suspect that the people who have sigs being added by BBS software are going to have trouble adding strange header lines, even if they have the regexp expertise to construct them.
Didn't we go through this at least twice already. Yes, your suggestion is perfectly OK for a "pure" cypherpunks remailer with sophisticated users. It is *NOT* OK for something like the typical anon.penet.fi user from alt.sexual.abuse.recovery or alt.transgendered. And at least anon.penet.fi allows for using the special header lines as part of the message body, to compensate for braindamaged mail systems. But some users might not even be *aware* that their systems add sigs - yes, I've come across a lot of those.... Julf
participants (3)
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Eli Brandt -
Hal -
Johan Helsingius