GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 661087
Add ability to remove localized "Re:" prefixes in subject
Last modified: 2012-06-19 11:29:48 UTC
For EMail subjects Evolution automatically replaces a prefix like "RE:" with its own "Re:". In German conversations some (wide spread) programs use "AW:". This is not recognized and prefixed with "Re:". After a few back and forth conversations, the subject looks like "Re: AW: Re: AW: Re: AW: Re: Important Meeting". Please also recognize "AW:" and replace with "Re:". Even better: offer a configurable option to setup all prefixes which should be recognized as auto-generated. An even nicer feature would be a language dependent default set. Thanks
The topic is wide-spread, see the german Ubuntu user forum: http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/evolution%3A-re%3A-aw%3A-und-antwort%3A-im-betreff/
If Evolution worked around broken mail clients: * How long should that replacement list get: Will also "WG:" get replaced (German for "Fwd")? * Which languages will this cover? Also Danish "SV" for English "RE"? * If it covers all languages on this world, how many false replacements will happen and annoy users? * And in the end: Can't you just ask people to fix their Outlook settings, as described in http://www.trilithium.com/johan/2005/06/re-outlook/ ? On the other hand, it seems that Thunderbird folks found some way to deal with this. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=319037
I guess we could check the subject's prefix for a localized version of "Re:" or "Fwd:" in the CURRENT locale and replace it with plain "Re:" or "Fwd:", but that's about as much of a hack as I'm willing to make.
Yes, I also suggested a configurable list, which is setup with a locale dependent default value. Therefore the list would not be so long, there wouldn't be false positives, and it is configurable by the end user (if he is in contact with some especially obscure mail client). It would also be nice to include "[SPAM?]", as it is quite insultig if you reply an EMail which still contains this prefix in its subject added by some "sensitive" mail server. Asking my business partners and clients to fix their Outlook is not an option due to offensive perception (as you might have anticipated).
(In reply to comment #3) > I guess we could check the subject's prefix for a localized version of "Re:" or > "Fwd:" in the CURRENT locale and replace it with plain "Re:" or "Fwd:", but > that's about as much of a hack as I'm willing to make. It seems to me that thunderbird's way of dealing with this, by providing an option where user can write comma-separated localized version to check against, is a good compromise. Even not adding UI option for that, only an option which will be stored in settings, with an empty string as a default value.
Created attachment 204095 [details] [review] evo patch for evolution; This adds an option to org.gnome.evolution.mail.composer-localized-re, where user can write other abbreviations for the "Re" to be also considered as "Re". These are separated by comma, without spaces. The abbreviation should be followed by either ": " or " : " to be recognized. It works nicely with "Subject - Trimmed" column in a message list.
Created commit 0cd98f1 in evo master (3.3.4+)
*** Bug 417470 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***