replying to html

[sa5bke]

I really like bower but I have one problem. I can view HTML mails ok with

html_dump = w3m -dump -T text/html

but when replying to them the HTML text is not quoted. Any solution to that?

[wangp]

Not yet. I think we would need to generate the reply template using the result of notmuch reply --format=json, which would allow us to (conditionally) quote any inline text attachments as well.

[xunam]

Hi, I just want to reactivate this issue. Replying to HTML-only messages is inconvenient. Currently I either copy-paste the text in the editor, or I switch back to mutt for replying…

[wangp]

I was wondering if we can respond to HTML messages "in kind" (not replying only with text/plain).

Ideally there would exist a suitable program that we can pass the HTML body to, then read back in when it is done editing, e.g. a wysiwyg HTML editor. I experimented with using pandoc to convert a few HTML emails to markdown, for editing in a text editor then converting back to HTML. The results were not promising. It seems like HTML emails in the wild use far too many tables for layout, so everything ends up in tables.

You would not be able to edit headers except at the compose screen, and bower could not automatically insert quote markers or wrap the reply body in a blockquote or whatever is customary.

Other ideas welcome.

[xunam]

This seems a bit too complicated and it would probably add many opportunities to break. As you point out, HTML emails are way too variable in their structure (or lack thereof) to be treated in a uniform way using converters. I tried using Pandoc already as HTML-to-text converter and got to the conclusion that it is not the right tool in this context, because it tries too hard to keep structure (and is really good at that), while the main thing needed in a mail reader is to extract text and remove cruft. Tools like lynx of w3m are way better at this task.

My opinion is that the first thing needed is to be able to reply to HTML-only messages in plain text, using the same converter as the one used for displaying. For instance, when the original message has no plain text content, replace the (empty) body generated by notmuch reply with one built using the displayed content.

Regarding a switch to HTML composition when replying to a message in HTML, I think it is an orthogonal issue. Calling an editor for HTML could be useful on occasion (either edit HTML using an appropriate tool or for instance compose a message in markdown and have Pandoc convert it to HTML, whatever), but it does not have to be tied to message formats when replying.

[wangp]

You can test the reply-json branch now if you like. I will test it more and probably improve the code before merging onto the master branch.

[xunam]

Somehow I can't manage to compile the code from this branch. The symptom I get is this:

$ make
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/manu/soft/source/bower/src'
Making Mercury/cs/compose.c
compose.m:441: In clause for predicate `prepare_reply'/4:
compose.m:441:   error: undefined symbol `maybe_default/2'.
compose.m:442: In clause for predicate `prepare_reply'/4:
compose.m:442:   error: undefined symbol `maybe_default/2'.
compose.m:443: In clause for predicate `prepare_reply'/4:
compose.m:443:   error: undefined symbol `maybe_default/2'.
** Error making `Mercury/cs/compose.c'.
make[1]: *** [Makefile:9: bower] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/manu/soft/source/bower/src'
make: *** [Makefile:5: bower] Error 2

This appears with commit abcb19453a01c082423bc3ad15589abd6fd5a2e6.

The NEWS file stats that I need Mercury 14.01 or above so the one I use (from Nixos version 19.09, if that matters) matches the requirement:

$ mmc --version
Mercury Compiler, version 14.01.1, configured for x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
Copyright (C) 1993-2014 The University of Melbourne

How can I diagnose this further ?

[wangp]

It will compile with 14.01 now.

[xunam]

Indeed. I just compiled it and successfully replied to a HTML-only message. So it works, as far as I am concerned…

Thanks !

[xunam]

Actually the initial issue for replies also applies to forwarding: when pressing W while on a HTML-only message, one gets a template message with nothing else than headers between the lines Forwarded message and End forwarded message. I feel that the work already done for replies can also solve this (hence I included in the same issue).

[wangp]

I've updated forward and edit-as-new functionality to match.

[xunam]

It works for me, as far as I can see.