[Mailman-Developers] In-Reply-To vs. References

[Harald Meland]

[Aahz]

> We've been having a discussion on comp.lang.py about Mailman's handling of
> headers in the context of (not) threading messages, and Barry Warsaw
> suggested that I continue the discussion here.
> 
> Summary: 
> I propose that in the mail-to-news gateway (but not the other direction), if
> the In-Reply-To: header exists but the References: header does not, copy 
> In-Reply-To to References.

(Not having read c.l.p,) I don't understand how such a proposition
could generate much of a discussion :)

If an email contains an In-Reply-To: header, I'd guess it is due to it
being a reply.  If this email is gated to news, the fact that it is a
reply, and preferably what message it is a reply to, should be
indicated somehow.

If such an indication can only be given by having the news-gate muck
around with the headers of the message, _and_ such mucking won't
destroy any of the _original_ headers of the message, I don't really
see the harm.

Of course, in an ideal world, every mail client would use the (IMHO)
superior References: mechanism, and this wouldn't be an issue.
However, as the world is slightly less than ideal, Mailman should
strive to make the _appearance_ of the world as ideal as possible.
Having threading broken when gating to news does not do much for
composing an ideal appearance :)

However, as I can see that this might be a slightly religious matter :),
I'll wait for other opinions (and read the discussion in c.l.p) before
trying to actually implement it (as this is something I _don't_ think
should be made optional).
-- 
Harald