GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 551470
Evolution: do not insert "--" (dash dash) at the start of signatures.
Last modified: 2009-04-11 03:14:36 UTC
Please describe the problem: In Evolution 2.22.3.1, I have two signatures, added using Edit -> Preferences -> Composer Preferences -> Signatures. Neither of these signatures starts with a "--". However when I start a new message (File -> New -> Mail Message -> Alt-g to select the signature field -> down arrow to select a signature), Evolution insists on adding a "--" before the signature. Why? If I wanted a "--", I could add them to the signature. Is there a setting to stop it from doing this, or can the default be changed please? Steps to reproduce: See steps above. Actual results: A "--" is inserted before the signature in new messages. Expected results: Just the signature to be inserted, without the "--". Does this happen every time? Yes, every time a signature is inserted, it seems to have these extra dashes. Other information:
First of all, it is "-- " and not "--". Second, this is a de-facto standard that we are not going to change. Most email applications strip anything after the "-- " when quoting for a reply.
Yes, but it's _my_ signature, and if I don't want a "-- ", then that's my choice. Defaulting to having a "-- " at the start of the signature is totally fine, provided that there's a way to turn it off if the user doesn't want it. Also, this may be a de-facto standard on Internet mailing lists, but in internal company emails you almost never see this. Foisting a de-facto standard on users which clashes with their corporate culture, and which they cannot turn off (without also losing the signature altogether, or alternatively making them have to manually delete the "-- " in every single email), does not seem like a winning strategy for user-satisfaction & product-adoption to me.
I believe we can give an option, even hidden, to those, whom do not like this, cannot we?
Created attachment 129319 [details] [review] proposed evo patch for evolution; New gconf key, /apps/evolution/mail/composer/no_signature_delim , when set to true, no "-- \n" at the beginning of the signature. it's too late for UI changes, thus let it be a hidden option, at least for now. Not speaking of the issue of making "- \n" from "-- \n" in some cases, which I fixed in some other bug, which is waiting its review or is in some other state (I'm lazy to look for that bug/patch).
No more configuration option. Let it be hidden for ever, only for specific people.
Committed to trunk. Committed revision 37322. We discussed on IRC that we can push to trunk, thus it'll be included in 2.26.0, as much hidden as possible.
Yay! Understand it is to be kept as a hidden option, and looking forward to using this after 2.26 comes out. Thank you!
Confirmed fixed in 2.26.0. Thank you, looks great! Steps to follow to for using this setting (adding here as a reference for myself or anyone else who wants to do this): Press Alt-F2, type "gconf-editor" (without the quotes), then in the left-hand tree drill down apps -> evolution -> mail -> composer, then with "composer" highlighted, in the right hand side area right-click and go "New Key", name is "no_signature_delim", type is boolean, and click the "false" button so that it says "true", then click "OK". Then close gconf-editor, and you're done (no need to restart evolution).