Re: "--" first in lines to indicate start of signature

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On Sat, Jan 2, 2016 at 1:02 PM, Russ Allbery <[email protected]> wrote:

> > A common convention is that e-mail messages contain a short description
> > of the author, called "signature" and the start of this is indicated by
> > a line only containing the two characters "--".
>
> The full, "correct" convention is actually the three characters "-- " with
> the trailing space.  Obviously, this causes all sorts of problems in
> practice, and a lot of software is tolerant of the space being removed.
> But that was originally the standard to try to avoid issues with the other
> uses of -- on a line by itself.
>

What other uses of "--" on a line by itself are there?  The only thing I
can think of is ASCII art.

-MSK

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<div dir=3D"ltr">On Sat, Jan 2, 2016 at 1:02 PM, Russ Allbery <span dir=3D"=
ltr">&lt;<a href=3D"mailto:[email protected]" target=3D"_blank">[email protected]=
rg</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br><div class=3D"gmail_extra"><div class=3D"gmail_=
quote"><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;=
border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div><span class=
=3D"">&gt; A common convention is that e-mail messages contain a short desc=
ription<br>
&gt; of the author, called &quot;signature&quot; and the start of this is i=
ndicated by<br>
&gt; a line only containing the two characters &quot;--&quot;.<br>
<br>
</span>The full, &quot;correct&quot; convention is actually the three chara=
cters &quot;-- &quot; with<br>
the trailing space.=C2=A0 Obviously, this causes all sorts of problems in<b=
r>
practice, and a lot of software is tolerant of the space being removed.<br>
But that was originally the standard to try to avoid issues with the other<=
br>
uses of -- on a line by itself.<br>
</div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>What other uses of &quot;--&quot; on=
 a line by itself are there?=C2=A0 The only thing I can think of is ASCII a=
rt.<br><br></div><div>-MSK <br></div></div></div></div>

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