bug#72442: 31.0.50; Gnus or message.el doesn't handle international message reply subject prefixes and insults users

[Robert Pluim <rpluim@gmail.com>]

>>>>> On Tue, 20 Aug 2024 15:20:54 +0300, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> said:

    >> From: Robert Pluim <rpluim@gmail.com>
    >> Cc: Björn Bidar <bjorn.bidar@thaodan.de>,
    >> 72442@debbugs.gnu.org
    >> Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2024 11:46:26 +0200
    >> 
    >> >>>>> On Sat, 03 Aug 2024 20:19:48 +0300, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> said:
    >> 
    >> >> From: Björn Bidar <bjorn.bidar@thaodan.de>
    >> >> Cc: 72442@debbugs.gnu.org
    >> >> Date: Sat, 03 Aug 2024 19:58:46 +0300
    >> >> 
    >> >> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
    >> >> 
    >> >> > FWIW, Rmail does support the various ways of saying "Re:", so the code
    >> >> > could be lifted from there.
    >> 
    >> So does message, you just have to configure
    >> `message-subject-re-regexp'. The message manual contains an
    >> appropriate setting.

    Eli> I wouldn't expect users to know how to do that in advance of getting
    Eli> the various "Re:" variants out there.  Should we perhaps improve the
    Eli> default value to be less English-centric?

Yes, we should.

    >> We could just add the example from the manual to the `defcustom' for
    >> `message-subject-re-regexp' (and also align it with whatever Rmail
    >> does).

    Eli> I think good defaults here win big time.  This corner is notoriously
    Eli> dark and most users will not know how to make it better.

The first is easy. The second is a bit more difficult, since the two
donʼt cover exactly the same cases, and message matches
case-sensitively, unlike rmail, so weʼd need to either adapt eg "ΣΧΕΤ" to
"[Σσ][Χχ][Εε][Ττ]" or make the breaking change of binding
`case-fold-search' in message. Personally Iʼd prefer the latter.

(are there really mailers that prefix the subject with "R:"?)


Robert
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