GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 244572
Semicolons in address fields cause addresses to be eaten
Last modified: 2004-08-19 19:31:31 UTC
Description of Problem: If one should seperate multiple addresses on the To: or Cc: line with semicolons, as many Exchange users are in the habit of doing, any addresses after the first semicolon will be removed before sending, but no error will be reported to the user! I, and my coworkers, have lost much productivity due to this bug. Steps to reproduce the problem: 1. Create a new email message. 2. Enter multiple addresses on the To: line seperated by semicolons (i.e. "emotionalchild@gnu.org; wanker@opensourceproject.com; teenager@freesoftware.com") Actual Results: The email is only sent to emotionalchild@gnu.org. No error is indicated. Expected Results: Either an error dialog should be displayed to the user, or Evolution should learn to deal with semicolons correctly, sending the email to all three users. How often does this happen? 100% repro. Additional Information:
;'s have special meaning in rfc822 addresses. they delineate group adresses. this is not a bug.
Surely you're joking. Just because Evolution should output valid RFC 2822 doesn't mean that the input to the address field must be always be valid RFC 2822; there are probably many valid user scenarios where this shouldn't the case. For example, this bug aside, you could imagine a user wishing to paste a Unicode address into the To: field, which isn't allowed in RFC 822 or RFC 2822, but which the user may wish automatically translated according to RFC 1641. Even if RFC 2822 is a requirement for the To: field, we still have a bug here, since my example isn't valid RFC 2822: it is unambiguously not group syntax. If faced with this particular syntax problem, Evolution should pursue one of three alternatives: 1. Automatically convert the semicolons into commas 2. Display a spec-warning dialog offering to correct the problem 3. Display a spec-error dialog and fail I strenuously argue that the fourth alternative: 4. Silently eat all but the first address, leaving the user with the erroneous impression that delivery will be attempted to all recipients ... is horrific app. behavior! It is corner cases like this which contribute to OSS's poor reputation for useability.
we have to parse rfc822 adresses too anyways, if you want to be abkle to treat ;'s and ,'s as the same char, then you should complain to the addressbook developers - they are the ones that implement the To/Cc/Bcc entry fields. if you want this feature then they will need to write their own parser instead of using camel's rfc822 addr-spec parser. different needs should use different parsers and all that...
I consider this a serious bug as well, particulary for users migrating from other MUAs, especially Outlook. Mozilla Mail has a seperate line for each addresee Mutt handles this "properly". I agree that Kaya's behavior number 4 is definately a NOT a good feedback mechanism for the users. Example, Foo Corp. migrates from Outlook/Exchange to Evolution, mails aren't reaching people. The mail admin will get pointed at, and rip his hair out wondering why these mails are "disappearing". Management thinks this new *nix email system is broken. Chaos ensues. Surely a more elegant solution can be found than Evo silently only sending to the first address, the average office worker will see this as a bug.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 242499 ***