From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Jeff Clough Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: mailclient-send-it usage of browse-url Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:41:34 -0400 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1271245313 31585 80.91.229.12 (14 Apr 2010 11:41:53 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:41:53 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Apr 14 13:41:51 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1O20yd-0005qA-61 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:41:51 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:34763 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1O20yc-00054W-LD for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:41:50 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1O20yW-000540-Us for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:41:44 -0400 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=60107 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1O20yS-00053B-8K for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:41:44 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1O20yN-0006bs-VS for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:41:39 -0400 Original-Received: from hrndva-omtalb.mail.rr.com ([71.74.56.125]:57135) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1O20yN-0006bg-Sx for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:41:35 -0400 X-Authority-Analysis: v=1.1 cv=wzQuF8Yqs4IO6CYUtTy28yZyBjSHZbbofww7aEg0rsQ= c=1 sm=0 a=dMxhv3uX6k0A:10 a=kj9zAlcOel0A:10 a=wN3dDBks/ChO7xvezkoALQ==:17 a=dLquRz5hDMmwTM0jq0QA:9 a=q923YlKD1Kv95JM3L7sA:7 a=kdbZTjeJMRMoKtusyjf6QJHXkPQA:4 a=CjuIK1q_8ugA:10 a=ulKWkwG8fdFQVXTT:21 a=Q3nlSGH_8p2M6rkv:21 a=wN3dDBks/ChO7xvezkoALQ==:117 X-Cloudmark-Score: 0 X-Originating-IP: 74.70.71.134 Original-Received: from [74.70.71.134] ([74.70.71.134:37788] helo=logrus.localdomain) by hrndva-oedge01.mail.rr.com (envelope-from ) (ecelerity 2.2.2.39 r()) with ESMTP id 98/B7-06126-EE9A5CB4; Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:41:34 +0000 In-Reply-To: (Christian Lynbech's message of "Wed, 14 Apr 2010 05:22:31 +0200") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1.95 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:123625 Archived-At: Christian Lynbech writes: > While it could be that emacs-w3m does not do the right thing with > mailto, it is still so that one cannot really know what `browse-url' > really points to. > > Wouldn't it be a solution to just directly do what `browse-url' was > normally expected to do rather than relying on the user or the > third-party package having set everything up correctly? I believe the issue is that it is important for Emacs to have a way to send mail messages even if the user doesn't use it for mail. Sending bug reports is a great example of this. The problem is that there is not one universal way to ask an operating system "How do I send a mail message?" and get an honest answer. Under Unix, you have tools like sendmail that are virtually guaranteed to be there. Under Windows, the Mac and other systems, not so much. A clever way around this is to fire up what Emacs thinks is the system browser and feed it a mailto: link. It's a hack, but given the alternatives it's probably the right thing. browse-url should work out of the box on most systems. If engineering were going to be done to make this better, it should probably start with finding a way to really ask the question "What is your mail client?" I think most of the machines this is an issue for now have some variable "Mail User Agent" buried in a configuration file or registry now. I don't know that that makes the problem really any easier to solve than it was before. Jeff