Re: [tlug] [OT] email client tips?

[Travis Cardwell <travis.cardwell@example.com>]

On 2014年04月25日 07:41, Darren Cook wrote:
> One of the delights of moving from Ubuntu to Mint/xfce, for me, was that
> Thunderbird was the default mail client; so I no longer needed to
> uninstall Evolution and all the tendrils it had tied into the OS.

Great imagery! :)

These days, using Debian, I install as few packages as possible when first 
installing the OS, deselecting all options (including "Desktop 
Environment").  I am then able to install only what I need, as long as I 
avoid meta packages.

> > * I have been unable to get line-wrapping to work well, despite
> > attempts to configure it in the "advanced" config editor.  When
> > composing a new message, lines are wrapped in the editor, but lines
> > of a paragraph are joined together when the email is sent!
>
> Are you composing as HTML then?

No, I much prefer plain text.

> Edit|Preferences has options to say you always want text. (If you can't
> find it let me know.)
> (BTW, in Advanced tab of preferences, general tab, config editor gives
> you a Firefox-style about:config screen; useful when you just cannot
> find something.)

Thank you very much for your offer to help!  I am afraid that I have 
already tried the following preferences:

* Edit | Account Settings...
    * (my account) | Composition & Addressing
        * Compose messages in HTML format: No

* Edit | Preferences
    * Advanced | General | Config Editor
        * mail.compose.wrap_to_window_width: false
        * mail.wrap_long_lines: true
        * mailnews.wraplength: 74

Despite promising key names, they options do not seem to work.  Lines are 
wrapped as I write email, but they are wrapped when sent.

> I actually have the opposite irritation: when I ctrl-S a message it
> does the line-breaking. If I then go back and edit a paragraph I have to
> join lines together. (Then press Alt-E, W, to reformat.)
> (I'd rather it didn't break lines until I actually send.)

It is indeed the opposite; interesting...  I wonder if it is due to 
different settings or different versions?

(I am running version 17.0.10.)

> > Thanks to the (stupid) way that Thunderbird manages quotes (">"
> > characters are not enough), one cannot simply cut-and-paste content
> > to/from an editor when replying to a message.
>
> ctrl-shift-O pastes in with quotes. Is that what you mean?
> (When I want ">>", ">>>" to show who said what in a conversation, I
> hilight the quoted paragraph, ctrl-X, then ctrl-shift-O, and it comes
> back with an extra set of ">".)

When I reply to an email in GMail, I select all of the text in the compose 
editor, cut it, and paste it into Vim.  I can efficiently compose my reply 
in Vim, and then I cut the text and paste it back into the GMail interface 
for sending.  The ">" characters indicate quotes, and all works well.

In Thunderbird, however, there is a special "quote" state, indicated by 
text color.  One can add quoted text using Edit | Paste As Quotation 
(Ctrl+Shift+O).  Simply entering text that starts with one or more ">" 
characters does not add quoted text; Thunderbird actually adds a space at 
the beginning of such lines when sending the message in order to prevent 
email clients from considering it as part of a quote!!!

This breaks the ability to use an external editor via cut/paste as 
described above.  When I paste a fully composed message back into the 
Thunderbird editor, all of the quoting is broken.

> Are you using thunderbird with your gmail account as IMAP? I find it
> fine, except I tend to press ctrl-S regularly, and with the gmail
> account it blanks out for a couple of seconds to do a network save. And
> then my phone beeps to tell me I've a new mail. (But I realize that is
> definitely a case of one man's bug is another man's feature.)

No, I am running my own mail server.

Cheers,

Travis