Re: [Evolution] Evolution renumbering quoted lists in reply

[Pete Biggs <pete biggs org uk>]

> In other words, every time I pressed <Enter> after one of the numbered
> lines to add a response, it renumbered all of the subsequent quoted list
> to start from 1. When quoting an email in a reply, should the original
> text not be left unaltered?

I can see why it does it...

First off, it all depends on how the original email is formatted.  If it
is all plain text, then there is no formatting to say that that bunch of
characters forms a list, and the original numbers are left
unadulterated.

If the message is HTML *and* the numbered list is formatted as an HTML
list, then there are problems.  The numbered list is implemented in HTML
as:

        <OL TYPE=1>
            <LI TYPE=1 VALUE=1>Point 1
            <LI TYPE=1 VALUE=2>Point 2
            <LI TYPE=1 VALUE=3>Point 3
        </OL>

If you reply to this in HTML, then without any added text you get:

        <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>
            <OL TYPE=1>
                <LI TYPE=1 VALUE=1>Point 1 
                <LI TYPE=1 VALUE=2>Point 2 
                <LI TYPE=1 VALUE=3>Point 3
            </OL>
        </BLOCKQUOTE>

which gives an indented piece of text with a citation marker down the
left hand side.  Now, if you add text, you obviously don't want it to be
cited, so the editor has to close the citation block, and start a new
one after your added text, with the consequence that a new list must be
started as well:

        <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>
            <OL TYPE=1>
                <LI TYPE=1 VALUE=1>Point 1 
            </OL>
        </BLOCKQUOTE>
        A reply to point 1
        <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>
            <OL TYPE=1>
                <LI TYPE=1 VALUE=1>Point 2 
            </OL>
        </BLOCKQUOTE>
        A reply to point 2
        <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>
            <OL TYPE=1>
                <LI TYPE=1 VALUE=1>Point 3
            </OL>
        </BLOCKQUOTE>
        A reply to point 3<BR>

The "bug" is that the "VALUE" field does not retain its value, but is
reset when a new list is inserted.  TBH this is the correct behaviour in
most cases - i.e. you usually want a numbered list you create to start
with a new index and not start where the last list left off.

Things are complicated by the fact that if you reply in plain text to an
HTML formatted email, then the same thing happens.  I think this is
because the underlying editor is still working in HTML and renders it to
plain text when it is displayed.  The only time it works properly is
when the original mail is plain text.

I suspect you should file it as a bug, although I think it is actually
nothing to do with Evolution and will be passed to the GTKHtml editor
people.  If you do put it in Bugzilla, then please let this list know
the bug ID so it can be traced in the future.

P.