[Bug-mit-scheme] imail issues with quoted human names

[Julie Sussman]

   Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:51:10 -0400
   From: Taylor R Campbell <address@hidden>

   Unfortunately, the mailrc file is a historical mess.  Various mailers
   interpret it in different ways, and GNU Emacs's documentation is
   inconsistent with its implementation.  For instance, I quote from the
   GNU Emacs manual:

   \begin{quotation}
   Addresses specified in this way should use doublequotes around an
   entire address when the address contains spaces.  But you need not
   include doublequotes around parts of the address, such as the person's
   full name.  Emacs puts them in if they are needed.  For example,

        alias chief-torturer "George W. Bush <address@hidden>"

   is correct in `.mailrc'.  Emacs will insert the address as `"George W.
   Bush" <address@hidden>'.
   \end{quotation}

   GNU Emacs doesn't do this, though; it inserts the address as `George
   W. Bush <address@hidden>' (which is OK according to RFC 2822, but
   it confuses some mailers).

   So, while Edwin's behaviour for the mailrc file is definitely
   suboptimal, it's not clear to me how to interpret mailrc files well,
   and you can work around it by putting

   (define-mail-alias "myself"
     '("\"Julie E. M. Sussman\" <address@hidden>"))

   in your .edwin file.  GNU Emacs's `define-mail-alias' is subtly
   different, unfortunately -- its second argument is a string of
   comma-separated addresses, rather than a list of strings --, so that
   you can't share an initialization file between Emacs and Edwin
   (without some helper routines in one or the other of the
   initialization files).

Actually, individual aliases like the one above are not a problem
for me.  I don't really need them.  However, I *DO* make extensive
use of lists that I keep in my .mailrc, especially divizheni.active,
which currently looks like this, and which I use this frequently
for official e-mail to my chorus.  I can't reasonably work
around that with a definie-mail-alias command like the one above.
It's way too unwieldy.

alias divizheni.active "Tatiana Sarbinska <address@hidden>" "Bonnie Armstrong 
<address@hidden>" "Freedom Baird <address@hidden>" "Suzanne Costanza 
<address@hidden>" "Barbara Gottfried <address@hidden>" "Priscilla Howell 
<address@hidden>" "Kate Jellinghaus <address@hidden>" "Liz Levin 
<address@hidden>" "Cathie ONeill <address@hidden>" "Barbara Pixton 
<address@hidden>" "Julia Poirier <address@hidden>" "Paula Rosenstock 
<address@hidden>" "Leilani Roser <address@hidden>" "Dori Smith 
<address@hidden>" "Anna Stevens <address@hidden>" "Debra Strick 
<address@hidden>" "Julie Sussman <address@hidden>" "Vera Anastasoaie 
<address@hidden>" "Elaine Winic <address@hidden>" "Mari Young <address@hidden>" 
"Jane Culbert <address@hidden>" "Kim Keown <address@hidden>" "Beate Gottschlich 
<address@hidden>" "Sarah M. Walsh <address@hidden>"


   If you have a suggestion for how to interpret mailrc files better, I'm
   all ears, but before changing what Edwin already does, I'd like to be
   sure that the interpretation is clear and well-justified.

I certainly agree with you that a clear and well justified decision
is the best.  But you explained that there isn't a clear standard
for the format.  I don't have time to learn about this and investigate
it myself, but if there's any decision that you and Chris think
is a good one, I am perfectly happy to reformat the lists in my
.mailrc, as long as they work with both edwin and emacs.

Until we resolve this, I'll have to remember to switch into emacs when
I need to send such messagse, as I did earlier today.


Thanks, and sorry not to be of more help.
Julie