[MlMt] Show HTML source doing The Wrong Thing

[Seebs]

On 7 Dec 2012, at 9:58, Benny Kjær Nielsen wrote:

> Note that “Show HTML Source” always shows the HTML source 
> generated by MailMate. That may in some cases be the HTML part of a 
> message, but that is not the (original) point of this option. The 
> point was to make it possible for the user to see the HTML of whatever 
> is displayed in the message view (even if it's the HTML wrapper for a 
> raw message).

I sort of get this, but it seems to me that even though both are "the 
HTML source that would be being rendered", the distinction between 
"comes from the message" and "does not come from the message, created 
locally" is much more significant. Or at least, it feels that way to me.

>> Well, now that I know about the custom style sheet option, I can see 
>> a benefit to this. I think the main thing is, it probably wants to be 
>> less-visible than "show HTML". If anything, I think it might maker 
>> sense to make HTML/text toggles more obvious and more visible; for 
>> instance, something in the header-display area that is only present 
>> when a message has alternatives, so there could be a little button 
>> which appears and says (Show HTML) or (Show Plain Text).

> Yes, some kind of HTML indications and buttons have been on my todo 
> for a long time. It's one of many things postponed until after I 
> refactor the message headers view.

Heh.

In case I have forgotten to mention it: I would love the ability to 
drag-select headers in the header view.

> But that still won't solve the cases where the plain text body part is 
> some kind of fixed “no plain text available” text.

True, but in those cases, it's usually *obvious* that there is intended 
to be an HTML portion. And since 90% or more of the ones I get, the HTML 
portion is spam and possibly malware... I am pretty happy with that.

Side note: Does your HTML rendering do JavaScript? My intuition is that 
the right answer should probably be "never, ever, do that", because 
someone who really wants to can save the message and execute it some 
other way.

>> 1. Would like a "show all headers" distinct from "show entire message 
>> completely raw".

> I assume you mean formatted/decoded headers. That might not be too 
> hard to do while still providing the functionality of the current 
> headers view (links and menus). But again, I've planned a complete 
> rewrite of the headers view which means I'm reluctant with regard to 
> doing too much with the existing view :-)

Mostly, I often want to be able to look at things like Received lines, 
etcetera (and see the headers in-order), but don't have any simultaneous 
interest in changing the presentation of the message body.

>> 2. Maybe "show HTML source" should turn into "show unprocessed body", 
>> wherein HTML is rendered as source, and quoted-printable (which is 
>> odd because everything I've heard people say about it is unprintable) 
>> gets shown still-mangled, for instance. Possibly even base64 crud. :)

> Isn't that what you get with “Show Raw Message”?

Show unprocessed *body* would imply "don't display the raw headers as 
plain text, just change body display".

Basically, my observation is that I often want to show headers *or* body 
raw, but rarely need to do both at once.

>> 4. The more I interact with this program, the more amazed I am that 
>> anyone has ever successfully written a mail client, because every 
>> time I suggest something that sounds simple it turns out to be a 
>> fairly complex territory that I had never been aware of.
>
> I could probably write a book about it by now ;-)

I would actually be really interested in such a book, though this 
probably does not indicate a large enough market to justify the time.

-s