74916 - Remove charset override checkbox from Message Display preference

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(MailNews Core :: Internationalization, defect)

Description

[nhottanscp]

This is separated from bug 74772.
Mozilla now has a new UI which allows the user to specify a charset and 
an override attribute per folder.
In NS6.0, there is a global override checkbox in the message display pref 
dialog. The folder override inherits the global attribute when no specific 
folder level override is specified. However, this may cause confusion since the 
user may need to check different places to control override. Also the purpose of 
override is to support incorrectly labeled messages which is usually local to 
specific newsgroups or mail folders and not supposed to be applied globally.
This bug is proposing to remove the global override UI and allow folder level 
override only.

Comment 1

[Dimitrios]

IMHO, the only way to avoid international users disappointment after removing 
the checkbox (there are lot of non-standard compliant messages and they will 
continue to exist in future) is to solve bug 65277 first. I suggest to make this 
bug depended on bug 65277.

Comment 2

[Nikos Platis]

I think the global override preference is a good thing to have. As I mention in 
my comments on bug 77512, what I believe is confusing is the per-folder 
setting, and the way to solve this is to make it explicit whether the folder 
settings follow the global ones. I quote the proposed interface:

  "Put an additional checkbox "As set in global preferences" in the Character
coding tab of folder properties. This should be checked by default, and in that
case the other controls (Encodings drop down list and "Apply default..."
checkbox) should be dimmed but reflect the global settings. If the user wishes
to set per folder settings he should clear the checkbox, in which case the other
controls should become available, etc."

In fact I think that the current interface is similarly problematic with the 
encoding setting. Imagine the following scenario: the user sets some global 
viewing encoding, which is of course inherited to the folders. Then changes the 
encoding for some folder. Then again the user changes the global encoding to 
something else. Is the new setting inherited to that folder as well? No, but he 
couldn't tell why. 
One more scenario: Right click the folder, select Properties and the Character 
coding tab. Observe the settings, don't touch anything, and press Return. What 
do you actually do then? Confirm the global setting or set a per-folder 
setting? Very ambiguous...

To conclude, make it explicit and clear!

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

This hasn't been touched in almost two decades. 
How does this fit in today's world?

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

bblack, can you determine if there is anything left to do here?

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Ben seems to be gone.

(from comment 0) This bug is proposing to remove the global override UI and allow folder level override only.

Jorg, what do you think about this? And comment 2 talks about encoding having similar issue - I didn't find a bug covering that.

Comment 6

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

Really old bug are mostly not really relevant or fixed already in the majority of cases.

These days, messages do carry their encoding in a header and the fallback encoding for folders is really no longer relevant.

In the account settings, any news servers have a default text encoding in the server settings.

I don't know what global preference the reporter is talking about. You can select a charset for a message individually and that's a very needed feature since there are messages which don't specify their charset properly.

WONTFIX, let's see whether anyone cares.