[R] Responding to a posting in the digest

[Martin Maechler]

Thanks a lot, Ted, for your comprehensive answer!

[See one short note way below: ]

>>>>> "TH" == Ted Harding <ted.harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
>>>>>     on Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:54:04 +0100 (BST) writes:

    TH> On 14-Jun-07 07:26:26, Moshe Olshansky wrote:
    >> Is there a convenient way to respond to a particular
    >> posting which is a part of the digest?  I mean something
    >> that will automatically quote the original message,
    >> subject, etc.
    >> 
    >> Thank you!
    >> 
    >> Moshe Olshansky m_olshansky at yahoo.com

    TH> This will depend on two things.

    TH> 1. Whether the mail software you use has the capability;
    TH> 2. Whether the digest format would permit it anyway.

    TH> Regarding (2), if you are receiving R-help in
    TH> "traditional" digest format (all the messages, each with
    TH> its principal headers, as one single long message-body),
    TH> then the only way to respond to a particular message is
    TH> to start to compose a new message and copy what you need
    TH> from the digest.

    TH> While I've never reveived R-help in digest format
    TH> myself, according to Martin Maechler:

    TH> http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/Rhelp02a/archive/59429.html

    TH>   Please open the URL at the end of every message
    TH> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help go to the
    TH> bottom and "log in" -- clicking the [Unsubscribe or Edit
    TH> Options] field. You need your mailing list password
    TH> sooner or later. The one you get sent every 1st of the
    TH> month; or you can have it sent to you again.

    TH>   Then you are in a page entitled "R-help Membership
    TH> Configuration for <foo>@<bar" Scroll down to the section
    TH> "Your R-help Subscription" where the 3rd entry is
    TH> entitled "Get MIME or Plain Text Digests?"  and now you
    TH> want MIME.

    TH> In MIME digest format, each message with its own main
    TH> headers is a separate MIME attachment, and suitable mail
    TH> software can bring any message up on its own, You can
    TH> then reply in the normal way.

    TH> However (and here is where I'm ignorant as a result of
    TH> never having received R-help as digest), your reply may
    TH> not continue the thread -- since this depends on
    TH> message-identifier headers being present which allow
    TH> threading software to trace which messages are replies
    TH> to which message. The JISCMAIL MIME digest for the
    TH> AllStat mailing list only includes a Message-ID for the
    TH> digest as a whole, i.e. the ID for the entire digest
    TH> message.  Message-IDs for the individual messages in the
    TH> digest (as would be seen by people who received them
    TH> singly) are absent: you only get the likes of

    TH>   Date: DoW, DD Mon YYYY HH:MM:SS TZ From: Sender
    TH> (person who sent the message to the list) Subject:
    TH> Subject of individual message MIME-Version: 1.0
    TH> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
    TH> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

    TH> and no Message ID for the original message from
    TH> "Sender". So any reply to this component message is not
    TH> identifiable as belonging to its thread.

    TH> I don't know whether R-help's 'mailman' provides such
    TH> headers (Martin??). 

Yes, it does (I've checked with a "pseudo-user" who receives
r-help in digests in MIME format). 
So you can indeed do the following.

In my limited experience, the main problem is the bad quality of
people'e e-mail software which does not properly work with
the (typically invisible) 'References:' and 'In-Reply-To:'
headers which mailman indeed does preserve in its MIME-digests.

    TH> If it does, then your reply could
    TH> include an "In-Reply-To:" which identifies the
    TH> thread. Otherwise it can't.

    TH> As to (1), you will probably get several suggestions for
    TH> suitable mail software. My own (see below) opens an
    TH> AllStat digest in a window with "attachment" tags
    TH> displayed, one for "Tablf of Contents", one for each
    TH> message. Clicking on one of these opens a new window
    TH> with the message attached to that tag displayed, and now
    TH> the usual reply/forward etc mail sunctions can be
    TH> applied to that message.  But it will reply only to the
    TH> address given in the "From:" header (i.e. the original
    TH> sender, as above), not to the AllStat list (so you have
    TH> to enter that address by hand, if you want to reply to
    TH> the list).

    TH> In principle, mailer software could also identify the
    TH> address of the list from which the digest has been sent,
    TH> as well as the sender of the original message, so you
    TH> could get the option to reply to either or both. But my
    TH> XFMail does not, and only offers the original
    TH> sender. Whether other mailer software can do this is for
    TH> others to comment on!

    TH> Hoping this helps, Ted.