[R] [OT] "_" inserted in postings

[(Ted Harding)]

Sorry if this is too "OT", but there is a particular relevance to
postings to R-help.

Of recent times, I have received several postings via R-help (and some
other mailing-lists) in which the "_" character is inserted where,
presumably, a space, " ", was intended. An example (received this
morning) is below, which (from the headers) was originally sent
through Yahoo web-mail. This is as seen when I read it.
[ From: FMH <kagba2006 at yahoo.com>
  Subject: [R] Derivative of nonparametric curve
  Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2009 02:07:10 -0700 (PDT) ]

================================================
Dear All,

I'm looking for_a way on computing the derivative of first and second
order_of a smoothing curve produced by a nonprametric regression. For
instance, if we run the R script below, a smooth nonparametric regression
curve is produced. 

provide.data(trawl)
Zone92__ <- (Year == 0 & Zone == 1)
Position <- cbind(Longitude - 143, Latitude)
dimnames(Position)[[2]][1] <- "Longitude - 143"
sm.regression(Longitude, Score1, method = "aicc", col = "red",_ model =
"linear")

Could someone please give some hints_on the way to_find the derivative_on
the curve at_some points ?

Thank you.
Kagba
================================================

In the message headers I see:

  Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
  Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

and, on inspection of the message text in the "inbox" folder (i.e. as
it was delivered to me), I see that each and every occurrence of the
"_" is represented there as the three successive characters "=A0",
i.e. a "quoted-printable" code.

Normally, I can happily ignore this kind of thing when it just occurs
in text. But since, as in the above message, it can also be interpolated
into R code, this could cause unnecessary inconvenience for people
who want to test the code which people post to R-help. Ditto if someone
should post code (such as the above) as a solution to someone else's
problem: As received, it just would not work!

Comment: I have for long time been under the impression, now apparently
a delusion, that the abominable quoted-printable had found its due final
resting-place in the Museum of Dishonorable Obsolescence; apparently not!

Also, if people are using web-mailers (Yahoo or other) that wantonly
insert this kind of rubbish, they should look into the possibility of
either changing the configuration under which they post their mails
(if possible), or mailing via a different agent.

The "quoted-printable" aspect may be a red herring, since I also see
that the "=" signs in the code are represented as "=3D", as is forced
in "quoted-printable"; but they have been rendered correctly in the
text as seen (and copied). So it may just be due to substitution of
"_" for " " on the ,art of the mailer.

What do others think?
Ted.

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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
Date: 08-Sep-09                                       Time: 10:59:30
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