Re: Please use an indicative subject line

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "Patricia M. Godfrey"  on Sat, 24
Jun 2006 12:07:49 -0400


> Is there any way one can re-create
> that by brute force later?

You mean, can I fix your error? If I really really had an incentive, yes.
Normally, no.

> I sometimes copy a post to
> my Xy log (one file for each month), delete the post
> from my e-mail app, and then think of something I want
> to say.

Well, don't do that.

> Tbird doesn't seem to let you get at
> that part of the message you're composing.

It doesn't let you see the whole file, including the headers? Nice Emailer you
got there.

> I believe (correct me, Robert, if
> I'm wrong) that the Message-ID only becomes important if you
> *change* the Subject line.

No, they're the most important element in threading -- the only possible way to
thread correctly.

> If you keep the Subject as
> is, XySearch adds your message to the existing thread
> without further ado. My e-mail programs (Hacksaw, Febooti)
> -- command-line tools that allow me to compose and send
> mail from within XyWrite -- don't encode the Message-ID
> when I reply to a message (probably aren't capable, in
> the technical sense, of "replying" at all), and XySearch
> threads my posts correctly -- if I don't tinker with the
> Subject line.

Actually, Carl, your posts don't quite thread correctly. For example, take a
look at the 2006 Chronological Threads: many of your replies should be indented
under the person you're replying to. In fact, they're always outdented at the
second level (look, for example, at your second reply in "U2-two minor
bugs..."; notice how I change the Subject, but since I X-Reference Zimmerman's
post, I'm indented within the thread). You follow me up with an *exact* quote
of my (changed) Subject line -- "Re: U2-darn few bugs..." -- but it starts a
new thread! "Strange files" is another thread that examples this. All of your
posts either start a Thread, or appear at the second level (1st indent). So,
yes, as a fallback of last resort, the Subject line (if precisely followed)
will enable you to stay "in thread", but not strictly following replies, and
date-disordered. I think, since you are using a command line util and
therefore have access to the headers of the msgs you're replying to, it would
be a simple matter to encode an "X-Reference:" to the msg ID you're following.
Your might try that as an experiment. Your own posts, of course, do have msg
IDs, and we thread on them correctly.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
-----------------------------