Outlook Express problems reading comp.lang.ruby

[daz]

Starting Jun 8th, I've noticed problems using Outlook Express (OE)
such as incomplete downloading of posts from comp.lang.ruby and
lock-ups requiring <Ctrl+Alt+Del End Task> from the Find Messages
dialog.


This coincides with recent changes to some posts which contain
self-references in their headers and a possible incompatibility
between these messages and OE's '.dbx' database file format.

Can anyone confirm ?

If you don't want to post here, my e-mail is valid ...
(Reply to Sender) and I'll report the problem.

Thanks,

daz

 

[Robert Klemme]

Hi Daz,

same here (using OE 6.00.2800). Although I don't need to reboot: Win 2k's
TaskManager can take care of that.

Although the MS implementation seems to have problems with the graph
traversal with loops (i.e. endless looping) I regard inserting a self
reference in a posting no good style either. Maybe we can generate some
fictuous message id as reference or - even better - insert the real thing.

Regards

robert

 

[Josh Huber]

Hi Daz,

same here (using OE 6.00.2800). Although I don't need to
reboot: Win 2k's TaskManager can take care of that.

Although the MS implementation seems to have problems with the
graph traversal with loops (i.e. endless looping) I regard
inserting a self reference in a posting no good style either.
Maybe we can generate some fictuous message id as reference or
- even better - insert the real thing.

How amusing that the workaround for messages posted from Outlook
causes OE to have fits.

Is there really no way to get Outlook to put In-Reply-To OR
References in mail messages? I mean, I thought it was bad, but
I'm becoming more convinced every day!

 

[daz]

Can anyone confirm ?

[...]
same here
[...]

Many thanks, Robert.

I've been pushing OE quite a lot in recent weeks and couldn't be certain

daz


With great distress, I had to delete (Ctrl+D) these six messages
(adjust hours for local time zone):

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tue Jun 08 14:07:41 2004 Re: accessing class instance variable from instance method
From: "Austin Ziegler" <Austin.Ziegler AT evault.com>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tue Jun 08 18:41:51 2004 Re: How can I use the last returned value?
From: "Austin Ziegler" <Austin.Ziegler AT evault.com>

 

[daz]

How amusing that the workaround for messages posted from Outlook
causes OE to have fits.

Josh,

I notice you're not wearing any flame-proof clothing, sooo ;-)

It was disappointing to learn that the cartoon animation
currently running in your head has no connection with actuality.

Here are some other MUAs that just can't get their headers together:

--------------------------------------------------------------------
User-Agent: ______ Mutt/1.4i
User-Agent: ______ Mutt/1.4.1i
User-Agent: ______ Mozilla Thunderbird 0.5 (Windows/20040207)
User-Agent: ______ Wanderlust/2.10.0 (Venus)

X-Mailer _________ NetMail ModWeb Module
X-Mailer _________ PHP
X-Mailer _________ Novell GroupWise Internet Agent 6.0.2
X-Mailer _________ Sylpheed version 0.9.10 (GTK+ 1.2.10; i686-pc-linux-gnu)
X-Mailer _________ BeOS Mail
X-Mailer _________ Apple Mail (2.553)
X-Mailer _________ Web Mail 5.6.0-2_sol28
X-Mailer _________ BeMail - Mail Daemon Replacement 2.3.0 Final
X-Mailer _________ PocoMail 3.03 (1740) - Licensed Version
X-Mailer _________ SquirrelMail (version 1.2.11)
X-Mailer _________ QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1
X-Mailer _________ mPOP Web-Mail 2.19
X-Mailer _________ Pegasus Mail for Windows (v4.12a)
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Is there really no way to get Outlook to put In-Reply-To OR
References in mail messages? I mean, I thought it was bad, but
I'm becoming more convinced every day!

Set a weekend aside and rewrite them all for us, eh ?


daz

 

[Josh Huber]

I notice you're not wearing any flame-proof clothing, sooo ;-)

Well, I'm always wearing it, actually

Here are some other MUAs that just can't get their headers together:

Ah, I'm glad that my MUA doesn't suck like as much as all the
rest you've listed below! But, could you be more specific? I
just tested mutt, and it does include an In-Reply-To header when
replying. I'm just curious how you built your list.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
User-Agent: ______ Mutt/1.4i
User-Agent: ______ Mutt/1.4.1i

[...]

 

[daz]

Well, I'm always wearing it, actually

I didn't see it in your headers

Ah, I'm glad that my MUA doesn't suck like as much as all the
rest you've listed below! But, could you be more specific? I
just tested mutt, and it does include an In-Reply-To header when
replying.

Dennis & David's fix injects a "References:" header which is a copy of
"In-Reply-To:". Mutt is probably OK, now.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm just curious how you built your list.

(Before any fixes, you understand.)


Sample ruby-talk range 94100..97794

From ruby-talk archive
reject msg =~ /^X-From-Usenet:\s/
from sample, because they're NG->ML

From my (Giganews) archive:
reject msg =~ /^X-Mail-Count:\s+(\d+)/
from sample, because they appeared on NG from ML.

Remainder are not on Giganews for ANY reason.
Random confidence checks on Google (none found).

Extract headers of interest.

Publish at www.ruby-talk.org/97655 for review.

Await protests (none).


daz

 

[Josh Huber]

Dennis & David's fix injects a "References:" header which is a
copy of "In-Reply-To:". Mutt is probably OK, now.

I guess I was surprised that Outlook didn't add either of these
headers, when so many other MUAs do. It's been a constant
annoyance, since it always breaks threading -- sure I can thread
by subject, but that doesn't keep the correct tree structure of
the message thread. (not to mention, it breaks the
"refer-parent-article" feature of my MUA, which automatically
finds the parent of the article I'm reading). I've been used to
using this for a couple years now, but I guess most of the lists
I'm on mostly consist of Mutt and Gnus users.

Granted, I think this usenet gateway is being a little too
strict, which is unfortunate.

[snip explanation]

Thanks! I still think including a useful I-R-T header would be
a helpful and nice thing to do. Obviously, this isn't an
option. I guess relaxing the restrictions on the nntp server
are also not an option?