160680 - When forwarding a message, a typed additional text below a line of the original extends indefinitely to the right.

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(MailNews Core :: Composition, defect)

Description

[Michael Graubart]

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC; en-US; rv:1.1b) Gecko/20020801
BuildID:    2002080108 (trunk)

I have my Preferences set so that normally if I forward (or reply to) a message,
I type it above the original message.  When I do this, there is no problem.  But
if I decide to interpolate a long new typed text below the first line of the
original, my typing does not fall into finite lines, but extends indefinitely to
the right in a single line, making it very difficult to read or edit.

What is more, when the reply or forwarded message is sent, it is received (at
any rate if it is self-addressed and picked up in Mozilla) in the same
unmanageable endless single line.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.Select a received message.
2.Click 'Forward'.
3.In the new window, click at the end of the first line of the original message
and type the 'Return' key.
4.Type a fairly lengthy comment.
5.ADDITIONALLY: send message to self (or someone else using Mozilla).

Actual Results:  The typed comment does not go onto a second, third, etc., line
when it has reached the normal length of a message line, but continues
indefinitely in a single line to the right.

In Mozilla, it is also received in the same form.

Expected Results:  It should fall into several lines of the normal length.

Mac G3 (old beige).  OS 9.2.2, International English.  Classic theme.

This misbehaviour does not happen in Netscape 4.79.

Comment 1

[Greg K.]

Confirmed using Mac/2002080208/9.2.2. (Obviously you must set Mozilla to forward messages 
inline rather than as attachments.)

Reassigning to Composition.

Comment 2

[Michael Graubart]

What I did when I wanted to add a comment to a message I was forwarding was just
to click on 'Forward' in the toolbar at the top of the window. I could then type
ABOVE the original message with no problem. If, however, I placed my insertion
point WITHIN the original message in order to comment on a particular phrase in
that message, the misbehaviour complained of took place.

Comment 3

[Michael Graubart]

MOZILLA 1.1 (Public Release)

I recently downloaded Mozilla 1.1.  The bug that I reported here (160680) is
still present. I have also got some more information about it.

1. The endlessly-extended lines appear whenever a comment is inserted within the
text of an original message that is being forwarded, i.e. they appear whether
the comment is inserted after a line in the original, or inserted between words
within a line of the original.

2. If the resulting forwarded message is viewed in Netscape 4.7, the lines are
still extended to the right, i.e. the formatting is not corrected by the
receiving mail system. (The same is true, as I originally reported, if it is
viewed in Mozilla itself.)

3. I tried forwarding the 'endlessly extended' forwarded message to my other
e-address, which is a Hotmail one, and viewing it in Mozilla Navigator and in
Netscape 4.7 Navigator. In both, the lines are still extended as before.

3. 

Comment 4

[Michael Graubart]

Yet more information: as further confirmation that the fault is introduced into
the message during composition and not when received, the following may be useful:

1. If the message with its added comments is forwarded to my Hotmail address,
the extended lines are there even if if the message is viewed in Microsoft
Internet Explorer.

2. I tried the following: I sent myself a message; clicked 'Forward' and put in
someone else's address; typed a long insertion into the text of the original
message, resulting in an impossibly-long extension of the line; copied the
message with its interpolation; cancelled 'Forward'; opened a word-processor;
pasted the message into the word-processor (which seemed to format the message
properly, with lines confined to their normal page-width); copied the result;
opened the Mozilla mail window and clicked 'Compose'; and pasted the message +
interpolation into the message pane.  The result was once again an indefinitely
extended line! In other words, the original process of typing a comment into the
message did something strange to the formatting, which was preserved and
reproduced through this sequence of procedures. (NB: what I have not tried is
pasting the message, with its interpolation, into another mailer than Mozilla.)

One other thing: I tried resetting my Preferences from 'Start my reply above the
quoted text' to 'Select the quoted text'; I then deselected it and again typed
an interpolation within the original text. The behaviour was the same as before. 

Comment 5

[Michael Graubart]

A final contrubution:

1. If a message (wherever it comes from) is received in Netscape 4.7, comments
can be inserted anywhere without any trouble.

2. If a message generated in Netscape is picked up in Mozilla 1.1 and the
process of trying to forward it with an interpolated comment is carried out in
Mozilla, the misbehaviour occurs. So it has nothing to do with the source of the
original message. This is also true of messages received from other people on
other ISPs and using other mailers.

Comment 6

[Michael Graubart]

I have discovered a work-around for this problem. If one clicks 'Forward',
highlights the text of the original message and (at the lefthand end of the
lower header bar) selects 'Body Text' in place of 'Pre-Format', the problem
disappears. A proper solution should be found, however.

Incidentally, this bug does not occur when using 'Reply' rather than 'Forweard'.

Comment 7

[Simon Paquet [:sipaq]]

This bug is targeted at a Mac classic platform/OS, which is no longer supported
by mozilla.org. Please re-target it to another platform/OS if this bug applies
there as well or resolve this bug.

I will resolve this bug as WONTFIX in four weeks if no action has been taken.
To filter this and similar messages out, please filter for "mac_cla_reorg".

Comment 8

[Frankie]

WMF Moz OSX.
Mac CFM RIP.