Re: ">" -vs- "Re:" -- is this guy crazy?

[Justin Sheehy <justin@linus.mitre.org>]

SL Baur <steve@xemacs.org> writes:

> No.  I've never seen it.  There is a (broken) Microsoft mailer that
> uses `FW: '.  There is a (broken) Novell mailer that appends a
> `-Reply'.  There are various (broken) Unix mailers that use `Re[2]: '
> `Re[3]: ', etc.  VM doesn't add anything by default.
> 
> The only acceptable thing to do is to prepend a `Re: ' if one is not
> already there, otherwise don't add anything.

I notice that you nicely avoid directly saying that VM is broken in
this regard, even though it is obvious from the second sentence above
that you agree that it is.  Correct me if I've misread.

I'll come out and say it: this behavior of VM is broken.

> > It breaks Gnus threading (as readers of the ntemacs list will have
> > noticed).
> 
> It shouldn't if the References: header is properly formed.

Lots of mail clients don't create a References: header, or create bad
ones.

One of my current pet peeves: the way that mh breaks threading.

If you reply/followup to a message, it does the right thing with Re:
but then appends a space to the Subject: as well.  

I know that Gnus can be customized to ignore the space, but that does
not change that it is broken behavior on mh's part.

I had hoped that this would be fixed in nmh, but I have seen similarly
broken messages coming from nmh users.

Feh.

> Since when has Gnus been customizable in this area?

See the variables gnus-simplify-*

-- 
Justin Sheehy

In a cloud bones of steel.