297497 - Replying to multipart e-mail: stripped HTML version is quoted, not plaintext version

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Henrik N]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Build Identifier: 

Thunderbird version 1.0 (20041206).

When I reply to a MIME multipart e-mail, with my reply being a plaintext mail, 
and Thunderbird set to View > Message Body As > Original HTML: Thunderbird will 
not quote the plaintext body. Instead, a stripped version of the HTML body is 
quoted.

By stripped version, I mean that TB converts it to plain text by removing HTML, 
writing URLs next to link text etc.

Since I'm not composing a HTML mail, I would expect the quoted text to be the 
actual plaintext body of the mail I'm replying to.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Receive a multipart mail, e.g. containing a HTML and a plaintext version
2. Have TB set to View > Message Body As > Original HTML
3. Reply to the mail (with your reply as a plaintext mail)
3. Note that the quoted text is not the plaintext version of the multipart 
mail, but instead a stripped version of its HTML body
Actual Results:  
A stripped HTML body is quoted.

Expected Results:  
The plaintext version of the body should be quoted.

Comment 1

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

I would expect the quoted text to be the text I was viewing.  If I'm viewing the 
message as Original HTML, that's the message body I expect to see.

Most messages with text/plain and text/html parts have basically the same 
content in the two, or occasionally have a text/plain that reads something like 
"Your mailer doesn't support HTML mail."  Additionally, a large portion of the 
userbase doesn't even know the difference between the two parts or that messages 
can *be* multipart/alternative; for the very few instances where the text/plain 
part is substantially different between the two, it would be confusing to those 
people to reply to a message and see quoted text that is not what they're 
replying to.

Since you *do* know the difference, and you *do* know that you can 
View | Message Body As | Plain Text, I suggest you use that feature, rather than 
requesting a "feature" that would cause confusion and the filing of more bugs.

Comment 2

[Henrik N]

I very much disagree.

When you write a plaintext mail, it does not make sense not to have the quote 
be the text/plain part of what you reply to, if available.

It should not matter what you View > Message Body As. That is a _viewing_ 
preference. I want to view my mails as original HTML, but I _write_ plaintext 
mails, and I definitely want those to quote the text/plain part if there is one.

View > Message Body As can be used as a workaround, but I maintain that this is 
a bug, or a misfeature.

I have never encountered "Your mailer doesn't support HTML mail.", but if this 
is really a problem, then an option could be added: "quote stripped HTML or 
quote text/plain in plaintext mails" defaulting to the current state of things.

Comment 3

[Gary Kwong [:gkw] [:nth10sd] (NOT official MoCo now)]

Reporter, does the issue still occur with the latest supported 2.0.0.x / Shredder trunk nightlies?

(1.5.0.x is now end-of-life and the latest supported Thunderbird version 2 is 2.0.0.16)

Comment 4

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

RESO INCO per lack of response to the last question. If you feel this change was made in error, please respond to this bug with your reasons why.

Comment 5

[palswim]

I still notice this in TB 3.0.2, especially with URLs or e-mail addresses.  In a multi-part message with a URL, in the HTML portion, it encodes the links as you would expect, in <a> tags.  But, Thunderbird tries to convert this into plain-text, converting the text to "URL <URL>" or "email <mailto:email>".  But then, after multiple replies with a sender of a multi-part message, this becomes a massive mess of constructions like "URL <URL> <URL> <URL> ..." or "email <mailto:email> <mailto:email>" because each iteration converts the plain text to HTML, then Thunderbird decides to convert the HTML part of the message back to plain text.

Comment 6

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Plaswim: Please can you file a new bug with clear examples of your issues, as its not immediately obvious if you issue is exactly the same as this one or not.

Also clearing blocking/wanted flags as this bug is closed and they would be the wrong ones for Thunderbird 3 builds anyway.

Comment 7

[Dan Tobias]

Perhaps if it were smart, it could at least refrain from adding angle-bracketed URLs and e-mail addresses when they match the plain text that's already displayed, to avoid such redundancies as mentioned in comment 5.

Comment 8

[palswim]

New bug at: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=565949