[PATCH v3 0/9] emacs: Improve the cited message included in replies

[Mark Walters]

On Tue, 13 May 2014, David Edmondson <dme at dme.org> wrote:
> Firstly, I don't think that the code resulting from this patch series is
> beyond improvement - the intention was really only that it be better
> than the current implementation.
>
> On Mon, May 12 2014, Mark Walters wrote:
>> On Mon, 12 May 2014, David Edmondson <dme at dme.org> wrote:
>>> emacs: Improve the cited message included in replies
>>>
>>> I tried to do things in small increments to make it easier to review.
>>>
>>> v2:
>>> - Don't run the text/plain hooks when generating the message to quote.
>>>
>>> v3:
>>> - Remove the 'no-button code, as it's no longer used.
>>> - Control the insertion of part headers using a function.
>>> - Fix the tests.
>>
>> I think I broadly like this series. I haven't thought through all the
>> ramifications yet so this is just some first thoughts. I will also send
>> some comments on individual patches.
>
> Thanks!
>
>> In notmuch-show we go to notmuch-show-insert-part-*/* to
>> notmuch-mm-display-part-inline and then leave the decision to inline to
>> mm-inlined-types. I think this means that, by default, we will not
>> inline signatures amongst other things.
>
> The rule is essentially: whatever text would be shown when the message
> is displayed for reading, without any of the washing.

Yes I think that is a good rule. That means that essentially all my
comments end up being more a (future) feature request that we make
choosing which parts to view in notmuch-show more configurable.

I do have a slight worry about whether there are any cases that people
will want parts shown in their emacs-show but not in any reply but I
can't think of any.

>> So at the least I think we should decide whether we want to override
>> mm-inlined-types.
>
> I'm not really clear on the benefits of this. Could you explain?

This was just the above slight worry.

>> Alternatively, and in my view preferably, we could have a function or
>> variable of our own which says which parts to include. Indeed, if do
>> it with a function we might be able to make an option to reply to mean
>> "include parts currently shown in the notmuch-show buffer" which might
>> be nice.
>
> That seems over complicated to me. The rule (above) from this series
> is easy to understand and work with. Other mechanisms could be
> implemented later, of course.

Yes, as you say, leave this for later (if ever).
>
>> There is a related question and possible bug that we might be able to
>> do something about at the same time: should we include text parts in the
>> reply if they have content-disposition attachment? I have been caught
>> about by this on one occasion replying to a message with a 500K log file
>> attached (and notmuch-show/wash becomes very slow with a 500K
>> message!)
>
> This is really a question of what happens in `show' mode. If it is
> currently displaying text parts with content-disposition attachment,
> that sounds like a bug that should be fixed (which would mean that the
> cited message wouldn't include that part either).

Yes I agree.

>> Finally, I am not sure whether I like having buttons in the reply. My
>> instinct is against, but they do add context.
>
> The last patch in the series is an example of trying to do the right
> thing - show the part headers when they are necessary for proper
> understanding, but elide them in all other cases.
>
> The mechanism used to do this is pretty crude in the patch. One could
> imagine a better implementation that examines the depth of the part
> tree, etc.

OK I will try and review these soon.

Best wishes

Mark

>
>> Best wishes
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> David Edmondson (9):
>>>   emacs/show: Re-arrange determination if a part header is necessary
>>>   emacs/show: Allow the user to decide when part headers should be
>>>     inserted
>>>   emacs/show: Accommodate the lack of part header buttons
>>>   emacs/mua: Generate improved cited text for replies
>>>   emacs/show: Remove the 'no-buttons option of
>>>     `notmuch-show-insert-bodypart'
>>>   emacs/mua: Don't insert part headers in citations
>>>   test: Update the test output to accord with the reply changes
>>>   emacs/mua: Insert part headers depending on the message
>>>   test: Update the test output to accord with more reply changes
>>>
>>>  emacs/notmuch-mua.el  |  82 +++++++++++++++++++-----------
>>>  emacs/notmuch-show.el | 135 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------
>>>  test/T310-emacs.sh    |  44 ++++++++++++++++
>>>  3 files changed, 180 insertions(+), 81 deletions(-)
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> 2.0.0.rc0
>>>
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