Re: [Evolution] Feedback

[Bill West <bill bwi com>]

Pete,

Thanks for the response. I am just going to make some quick comments
here, but will try to prepare a more detailed response in the future.


On Sun, 2013-06-23 at 12:47 +0100, Pete Biggs wrote:
> First, if you have comments about Evolution, then you really need to
> tell us what version of it you are using.  Things change rapidly and
> what you are commenting on may not be relevant any more.

Evolution 3.4.4 on Linux - Debian Wheezy package

Maintainer: Debian Evolution Maintainers
<pkg-evolution-maintainers lists alioth debian org>
Architecture: amd64
Version: 3.4.4-2
Replaces: evolution-common (<< 2.91)


> > I have numerous problems trying to edit things in emails I am trying to
> > send (addresses, subject lines, the content of the message). Simple
> > typing works fine, but any type of cut and paste operation seems to have
> > strange and unpredictable results. I realize this isn't very helpful,
> > but it is obvious that the editor is trying to be smart about things
> > like email address, signature blocks, and previous messages in a mail
> > thread. What it is trying to do is unclear,
>
> The issues is to do with replying to emails that are in HTML format, and
> in particular the HTML that some clients create.  It is helpful to
> understand HTML, once you do that, you can sort of understand why things
> are happening.  Specifically when inserting text, the pasted text can
> become part of the original HTML structure - if nested DIV blocks are
> involved, the placing of the inserted text can appear to be random.
>
> This happens even if the reply you are typing is in plain text (i.e. not
> HTML) - this is because the underlying editor works on HTML formatting
> if there are HTML codes in the text, it just then presents the text in a
> plain text rendering. (That may be a simplification, but it's how it
> appears.)  You can often see dotted boxes in the text when you are
> editing it - these are the DIV (or whatever) blocks that the editor is
> dealing with.
>
> The solution I have found is to make sure that you press return a few
> times where you want to insert text to make sure there is a blank line
> or two to insert the text into - the editor is intelligent enough to
> "re-HTML" the text when you do that, but not, apparently, when you add
> text.
>
> In general though, I don't find it to be that much of a problem - I
> write hundreds of emails almost exclusively in Evolution and don't often
> have problems.

I am skilled in using HTML, and understand that an HTML editor is more
complex than a simple text editor. I suspect that if I had access to the
HTML directly, I would not have problems. (We incorporate Xinha within
our product, see below).

> >  so operations like trying to
> > add paste an additional email address into one of the address lines have
> > strange results, especially when address already exist in a line.
>
> There are strict formats for the address lines - make sure you aren't
> accidentally pasting addressing into the middle of other addresses - you
> just have to be aware of where the cursor is.

Sometime the cursor won't move when in an address line. Also, the order
of the addresses sometimes matters to me, and it seems that it is only
possible to paste additional addresses at the end of the line. Most of
the time I find it easier to simply blank out the address line and type
all the addresses in manually.

> >  Trying
> > to paste text after the signature block seems impossible (it always ends
> > up in signature block),
>
> Good.  The signature block comes at the end - any text after the "-- "
> *is* part of the signature block.

Depending on the email I am sending, I sometimes want the signature
block as the very last thing in the email, and other times I want to put
additional information after the signature block. 

> >  and trying to copy text from text that was
> > pasted into a message often results in all the previously pasted text
> > disappearing. Personally, I would be happier with a dumb editor that
> > just accepts whatever text I paste into it,
>
> There is a plugin for an external editor, look under Edit -> Plugins
>
> Things may also get better when the WebKit editor gets integrated.

Thanks for the hint. I will look at plugging in either Xinha or
MicroEmacs. Is it possible to have one plugin for Plain-Text, and I
different plugin for HTML ?


> > I am looking for a server-centric mail client to replace evolution, so
> > that I don't need to rebuild my address book, signatures, etc. every
> > time I use a different computer, but have not yet found one that is
> > acceptable.
>
> Try gmail.

Gmail has limitations which make it unsuitable for me, some of which
are:

A) We have our own mail servers (which do support things like Squirrel
Mail).

B) Last time I checked, Gmail does not support return receipts. I don't
know if it supports encrypted email. Both are requirements for me.


One final note. Here is an item for the wishlist. To reply to your email
in a format similar to yours I had to make two changes to my preferences
(set the reply preference to Quoted, and set the signature block to be
after the included message). It would be convenient to be able to
override the default preferences for individual messages, possible with
selectors next to the other formatting selectors which appear beneath
the Subject: line.

> P.

Bill West
-- 
Cell: 877-567-7451
Skype: bill.west9

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