Re: Editing email replies

[Peter Davis <pd@world.std.com>]

Barry Margolin <barmar@genuity.net> writes:

> In article <erBb9.37325$kp.567963@rwcrnsc52.ops.asp.att.net>,
> pd <pd@world.std.com> wrote:
> >I've been thinking about how to edit replies to MIME messages that use
> >multipart/alternative.  For example, suppose the message has a text/plain
> >alternative and a text/html alternative, as shown below.  When I insert some
> >plain text in my reply, I'd really like the resulting message to have the
> >two alternatives for the text before my insertion, then my insertion in
> >plain text, and then the two alternatives after my insertion.
> >
> >In other words,  I want to go from:
> >
> >    multipart/alternative
> >        text/plain
> >        text/html
> >
> >to
> >
> >    multipart/mixed
> >        multipart/alternative
> >            text/plain
> >            text/html
> >        text/plain <--- my reply!
> >        multipart/alternative
> >            text/plain
> >            text/html
> 
> This seems like it would be extremely difficult to automate, because Emacs
> would have to determine which parts of the plain and HTML alternatives
> correspond to each other, so that it can find the correct dividing points.

Actually, I just tried this with a certain well-known commercial
e-mail package whose name starts with "E".  What I got was a single
multipart/alternative section, containing a text/plain and a
text/html.  However, the reply line I inserted had been inserted into
both parts!  That seems even more complicated.

Thanks,

-pd


-- 
--------
                             Peter Davis
               Funny stuff at http://www.pfdstudio.com
                 The artwork formerly shown as prints
    List of resources for children's writers and illustrators at:
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