[Aahz]

We've been having a discussion on comp.lang.py about Mailman's handling of headers in the context of (not) threading messages, and Barry Warsaw suggested that I continue the discussion here.

Summary: I propose that in the mail-to-news gateway (but not the other direction), if the In-Reply-To: header exists but the References: header does not, copy In-Reply-To to References.

(Not having read c.l.p,) I don't understand how such a proposition could generate much of a discussion :)

If an email contains an In-Reply-To: header, I'd guess it is due to it being a reply. If this email is gated to news, the fact that it is a reply, and preferably what message it is a reply to, should be indicated somehow.

If such an indication can only be given by having the news-gate muck around with the headers of the message, _and_ such mucking won't destroy any of the _original_ headers of the message, I don't really see the harm.

Of course, in an ideal world, every mail client would use the (IMHO) superior References: mechanism, and this wouldn't be an issue. However, as the world is slightly less than ideal, Mailman should strive to make the _appearance_ of the world as ideal as possible. Having threading broken when gating to news does not do much for composing an ideal appearance :)

However, as I can see that this might be a slightly religious matter :), I'll wait for other opinions (and read the discussion in c.l.p) before trying to actually implement it (as this is something I _don't_ think should be made optional).

Harald