VMs: Re: Re: VMS list on web

["Michael Winkelmann" <DasWinkelmann@xxxxxx>]

> Hello Marzio,
>
> This format looks good; however, I am a bit puzzled by duplicate
entries
> showing up under Subject in the Thread listing?
>

Hello Dana,

this is not a problem or bug in Marzio's script, it is a problem with
the email software used by some list members. But it can be puzzling,
and I try a short description of the issue.

Every electronic mail contains two parts, a header part and a message
part. The message part is the text of the mail, the header part stores
more technical informations and is not displayed by most mailing
programs.

If you use a mail client (like Outlook Express on Microsoft Windows or
KMail on KDE), every new message gets a new and unique ID created by the
client software. This ID is stored in the header part as "Message-ID".

If somebody replies to the message (by clicking on the "Reply"-Button on
graphical clients), the message gets a header item named "In-Reply-To"
with the message ID of the original mail, so a software is able to show
a thread view of the messages. This information is parsed by Marzio's
program.

But often this part of information is incorrect or missing, and so the
thread can not be built correctly. If someone sends a message not with
the "Reply" function of the mail client, and cites another message via
the clipboard, the mail software does not know anything about the
original context of the mail.

Additionally, some mail programs does not set the "In-Reply-To" at all.
(I found a program identifying itself as "SquirrelMail" used by someone
in the list, which does never set an "In-Reply-To" header.) This is a
bug (or very odd feature) in the mail program.

For such reasons, a puzzling and "buggy" looking duplication of thread
names show up when processing the mailing list with a script.

Michael


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