281255 - Inconsistent handling of tab characters when composing, viewing and viewing source of messages

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 144230

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Cameron McCormack (:heycam)]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20050110 Firefox/1.0 (Debian package 1.0+dfsg.1-2)
Build Identifier: version 1.0 (20050116)

Thunderbird version 1.0 (20050116) on Linux, Debian package 1.0-3.

Tab characters are handled differently in the message view pane, the composition
window and in the view source window.  In the message view pane, tabs are always
substituted with 4 spaces, not respecting any actual tab stops.  In the
composition window, tabs are displayed in the traditional manner of being a
single character that positions the next character at the next 8-character
boundary.  In the message source window, tabs are handled as in the composition
window except that in some cases, a single extra space is also inserted.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Compose a new message.
2. Type the following as the message content:

1<tab>1
<sp>2<tab>2
<sp><sp>3<tab>3
<sp><sp><sp>4<tab>4

   where <sp> is a space character and <tab> is a tab character.
   Notice that as would be expected, the second column of numbers lines up.
3. Save this message in the Drafts folder and close the composition window.
4. Go to the Drafts folder to view the message in the preview pane.
   Notice that now the second column of numbers are staircased, just like the
   first column, since each tab has been replaced with 4 space characters.
5. View the message source of this message.  Notice that lines 2, 3 and 4 all
   have an extra space inserted at the beginning of the line.  The tab
   characters still observe the 8-character boundary, though.
6. Closing the message source window and saving this message to a file, notice
   that those spaces that were visible in the message source window have also
   been saved to the file.
Actual Results:  
The message preview pane had substituted 4 space characters for each tab character.
The message source window (and saved file) had an extra space at the start of
some lines containing tabs.

Expected Results:  
The message preview pane shuld treat tabs in the same way as the message
composition window.
The message source window (and saved file) should not insert an extra space at
the start of some lines containing tabs.

The extra spaces viewed in the message source are also inserted if the message
is actually sent/posted.

Comment 1

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

DUP of Bug 144230, when it's Product will be changed to "Core" according to
Product/Structure change of Bugzilla.
	

Comment 2

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Agreed on dupe.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 144230 ***