Re: Those MIME requirements

[Steinar Bang <sb@metis.no>]

>>>>> Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@ifi.uio.no>:

>> ******
>> REQ-4 - navigation in multipart/mixed messages
>> I would like a simple way of navigating through a multipart
>> message, and view and save the parts.  I rather like the current TM
>> behaviour for this
>> (19980825 Steinar Bang <sb@metis.no>)

> How does TM navigate through the multipart/mixed messages?

You use the command "v" (for "view") in the summary buffer, which puts 
you in the buttonized article buffer, where you can skip backwards and
forwards between message parts, by using "p" and "n".

When you're standing on a message part, "x" will save the contents to
a file, after decoding any CTE, and "v" will play it using an external 
method.

"q" takes you back to the summary buffer.

It has a feel similar to dired.

>> ******
>> REQ-5 - display of text/html
>> I would like to see text/html message parts formatted inline in the
>> message (using W3, I guess), both where they are the only alternative,
>> and where they are part of a multipart/alternative
>> (19980825 Steinar Bang <sb@metis.no>)

> Don't w3 have to display things in its own buffer?  Anyway, 0.27 will
> display html with w3 in a separate buffer, which brings up the
> question: How is Gnus supposed to display things that are displayed by 
> Emacs, but not in the article buffer?  Gnus has to pop up a new
> buffer, but is that buffer supposed to replace the article buffer, or
> what? 

Hm... I don't know.  I sort of thought of w3 just formatting the HTML, 
and inserting it into the displayed message, fonts and all.

But obviously this won't work for live links, and images and stuff.

Is it possible to make w3 use part of a buffer, that is handed to it
by Gnus? Bill...?

>> ******
>> REQ-6 - toggle between text/html and text/plain
>> I would like to be easily able to toggle between text/plain and
>> text/html parts of a multipart/alternative
>> (19980825 Steinar Bang <sb@metis.no>)

> Ooh.  multipart/alternative.  It's not handled exactly the same way as 
> multipart/mixed, which is obviously not good, but I can't visualize
> how this is supposed to look with the current buttonized scheme.

How about a menu, or some way of cycling through the alternatives when
you're standing on top of a buttonized message part?

>> ******
>> REQ-7 - replying to text/html
>> I would like to be able to reply to a text/html message part as if it
>> had been a text/plain message (ie. I would like to see the HTML
>> formatted into plain text before it's taken into a *message* buffer
>> and quoted)
>> (19980825 Steinar Bang <sb@metis.no>)

> And this goes for all things that Emacs display, but not in the
> article buffer (see REQ-5).  Or?

Basically I would just like to be able to read and reply to messages
sent in HTML, with a minimum of intrusion.  If this breaks down to
always using the text/plain part of a multipart/alternative or
formatting text/html into plain text before displaying when you don't
have a simpler alternative, that's OK for now (at least for me).

Inline W3 handling of HTML is really a luxury item, that can wait for
later (but it sure would nice if we could swing it :-) ).

>> ******
>> REQ-8 - formatted MSWord documents shown inline
>> I would like attached MSWord documents to be shown inline as the
>> results of catdoc or other filter, while keeping it easy to save the
>> MSWord file to disk
>> (19980825 Steinar Bang <sb@metis.no>)

> Sure.  Send me rules to plonk into `mailcap-mime-data' (as default
> settings) for doing this and other wonderful things.  (I mean --
> displaying weird formats and stuff.)

OK. Will research and do sometime next week (if somebody doesn't beat
me to it)

Great work so far, Lars! I'm impressed at the speed of implementation! :-)


- Steinar