[PATCH] Documentation/email-clients.txt: clarify Thunderbird section

[PATCH] Documentation/email-clients.txt: clarify Thunderbird section

[Alan Jenkins]

1) Make it clearer that there are three different methods here,
   by using two different levels of indentation.

2) Reorder the different methods:

  - Disabling word wrap altogether should be the last option.
    It involves manually editing config files, and many Thunderbird
    users will not want to disable word wrap for normal (non-patch)
    messages.

  - "Preformat mode" should be the first option. It's really convenient.
    (Guess how I sent this patch).

Signed-off-by: Alan Jenkins <alan-jenkins@tuffmail.co.uk>
---
 Documentation/email-clients.txt |   56 +++++++++++++++++++++-----------------
 1 files changed, 31 insertions(+), 25 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/email-clients.txt b/Documentation/email-clients.txt
index a618efa..c899444 100644
--- a/Documentation/email-clients.txt
+++ b/Documentation/email-clients.txt
@@ -180,34 +180,40 @@ Sylpheed (GUI)
 Thunderbird (GUI)
 
 By default, thunderbird likes to mangle text, but there are ways to
-coerce it into being nice.
-
-- Under account settings, composition and addressing, uncheck "Compose
-  messages in HTML format".
-
-- Edit your Thunderbird config settings to tell it not to wrap lines:
-      user_pref("mailnews.wraplength", 0);
-
-- Edit your Thunderbird config settings so that it won't use format=flowed:
-      user_pref("mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed", false);
-
-- You need to get Thunderbird into preformat mode:
-. If you compose HTML messages by default, it's not too hard. Just select
-  "Preformat" from the drop-down box just under the subject line.
-. If you compose in text by default, you have to tell it to compose a new
-  message in HTML (just as a one-off), and then force it from there back to
-  text, else it will wrap lines. To do this, use shift-click on the Write
-  icon to compose to get HTML compose mode, then select "Preformat" from
-  the drop-down box just under the subject line.
-
-- Allows use of an external editor:
-  The easiest thing to do with Thunderbird and patches is to use an
-  "external editor" extension and then just use your favorite $EDITOR
-  for reading/merging patches into the body text.  To do this, download
-  and install the extension, then add a button for it using
+coerce it into being nice.  Try one of the methods below.
+
+- Get Thunderbird into preformat mode:
+
+  - If you compose HTML messages by default, select "Preformat" from the
+    drop-down box just under the subject line.
+
+  - If you compose in text by default, you have to tell it to compose a new
+    message in HTML (just as a one-off), and then force it from there back to
+    text, else it will wrap lines. To do this, use shift-click on the Write
+    icon to compose to get HTML compose mode, then select "Preformat" from
+    the drop-down box just under the subject line.
+
+- Use an external editor:
+
+  You can install an "external editor" extension which will allow you to use
+  your favorite $EDITOR for reading/merging patches into the body text.
+  First download and install the extension, then add a button for it using
   View->Toolbars->Customize... and finally just click on it when in the
   Compose dialog.
 
+- Disable word wrap completely:
+
+  1. Under account settings, composition and addressing, uncheck "Compose
+     messages in HTML format".
+
+  2. Edit your Thunderbird config settings to tell it not to wrap lines:
+
+             user_pref("mailnews.wraplength", 0);
+
+  3. Edit your Thunderbird config settings so it won't use format=flowed:
+
+             user_pref("mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed", false);
+
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 TkRat (GUI)
 
-- 
1.6.3.3

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/email-clients.txt: clarify Thunderbird section

[jim owens]

I don't have a problem with your patch, but it is not true
that you need to edit the prefs.js to disable line wrap.

I did this in the gui to fix my own patch sending,
under "Composition" you can set the wrap = 0.

While changing format=flowed does require editing the file,
on my version of Thunderbird, 2.0.0.23, it isn't clear how
it breaks the patch to leave it flowed.

And I have never used HTML, Preformat.

jim

Though now that I have said that, Andrew will probably
tell me the patch I sent is broken ;)

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/email-clients.txt: clarify Thunderbird section

[Alan Jenkins]

jim owens wrote:
> I don't have a problem with your patch, but it is not true
> that you need to edit the prefs.js to disable line wrap.
>
> I did this in the gui to fix my own patch sending,
> under "Composition" you can set the wrap = 0.
>
> While changing format=flowed does require editing the file,
> on my version of Thunderbird, 2.0.0.23, it isn't clear how
> it breaks the patch to leave it flowed.
>
> And I have never used HTML, Preformat.
>
> jim
>
> Though now that I have said that, Andrew will probably
> tell me the patch I sent is broken ;)
>   

/google

The RFC for format=flowed says that it should escape lines which start 
with a space (by "space stuffing" - prepending an additional space).  So 
in theory it should completely break patches.   And indeed it does 
<http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/java-patches/2003-q2/msg00315.html>

Using HTML preformat in current versions of Thunderbird appears to send 
with a format=flowed content-type, and then violates the RFC by not 
performing any space-stuffing.

So if I look at format=flowed patch in my Sent email folder, I see that 
the message viewer correctly strips the first leading space in each 
line.  I.e. it breaks if you use copy+paste to get the patch out of 
Thunderbird (or any other format=flowed aware client).  File->Save As 
preserves the spaces though, allowing the patch to be applied.

Regards
Alan "Don't you feel better knowing that"

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/email-clients.txt: clarify Thunderbird section

[jim owens]

Alan Jenkins wrote:
> /google
> 
> The RFC for format=flowed says that it should escape lines which start
> with a space (by "space stuffing" - prepending an additional space).  So
> in theory it should completely break patches.   And indeed it does
> <http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/java-patches/2003-q2/msg00315.html>
> 
> Using HTML preformat in current versions of Thunderbird appears to send
> with a format=flowed content-type, and then violates the RFC by not
> performing any space-stuffing.
> 
> So if I look at format=flowed patch in my Sent email folder, I see that
> the message viewer correctly strips the first leading space in each
> line.  I.e. it breaks if you use copy+paste to get the patch out of
> Thunderbird (or any other format=flowed aware client).  File->Save As
> preserves the spaces though, allowing the patch to be applied.
> 
> Regards
> Alan "Don't you feel better knowing that"

Thanks, yes I do...

Since the text wrap=0 also shut off "space stuffing" on send
in my version (as seen by the raw message on my smtp gateway),
I'm thinking they have html/text consistent sending bugs.

So I'll use the "format=flowed,false" in my prefs so
they don't blow me away with a future fix :)

jim
 

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/email-clients.txt: clarify Thunderbird section

[Chris Friesen]

On 12/10/2009 10:25 AM, Alan Jenkins wrote:

> The RFC for format=flowed says that it should escape lines which start 
> with a space (by "space stuffing" - prepending an additional space).  So 
> in theory it should completely break patches.   And indeed it does 
> <http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/java-patches/2003-q2/msg00315.html>
> 
> Using HTML preformat in current versions of Thunderbird appears to send 
> with a format=flowed content-type, and then violates the RFC by not 
> performing any space-stuffing.
> 
> So if I look at format=flowed patch in my Sent email folder, I see that 
> the message viewer correctly strips the first leading space in each 
> line.  I.e. it breaks if you use copy+paste to get the patch out of 
> Thunderbird (or any other format=flowed aware client).  File->Save As 
> preserves the spaces though, allowing the patch to be applied.

Hmm...I'm using Thunderbird 3 beta4, and it appears that when sending
via the "preformat" mechanism it actually does perform space-stuffing.
This is visible as an extra leading space when looking at the raw source
of the sent (or received) email via ctrl-U.

However, if one turns off format=flowed, but leaves wrap set to 72, then
the html preformat works without having to set the wrap to 0.

Thanks,

Chris

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/email-clients.txt: clarify Thunderbird section

[Randy Dunlap]

On Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:05:47 -0600 Chris Friesen wrote:

> On 12/10/2009 10:25 AM, Alan Jenkins wrote:
> 
> > The RFC for format=flowed says that it should escape lines which start 
> > with a space (by "space stuffing" - prepending an additional space).  So 
> > in theory it should completely break patches.   And indeed it does 
> > <http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/java-patches/2003-q2/msg00315.html>
> > 
> > Using HTML preformat in current versions of Thunderbird appears to send 
> > with a format=flowed content-type, and then violates the RFC by not 
> > performing any space-stuffing.
> > 
> > So if I look at format=flowed patch in my Sent email folder, I see that 
> > the message viewer correctly strips the first leading space in each 
> > line.  I.e. it breaks if you use copy+paste to get the patch out of 
> > Thunderbird (or any other format=flowed aware client).  File->Save As 
> > preserves the spaces though, allowing the patch to be applied.
> 
> Hmm...I'm using Thunderbird 3 beta4, and it appears that when sending
> via the "preformat" mechanism it actually does perform space-stuffing.
> This is visible as an extra leading space when looking at the raw source
> of the sent (or received) email via ctrl-U.
> 
> However, if one turns off format=flowed, but leaves wrap set to 72, then
> the html preformat works without having to set the wrap to 0.

Surely this help text needs to be updated. It's most likely
a moving target (how thunderbird acts, that is), but anything that
helps is good.

---
~Randy