Re: Differences between mail-mode and message-mode

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Reiner Steib <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden, address@hidden
> Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:41:32 +0200
> 
> >  . mail-mode runs `text-mode-hook' and `mail-mode-hook'; message-mode
> >    says it runs `message-mode-hook' "in addition to any hooks its
> >    parent mode `text-mode' might have run" -- it isn't clear to me if
> >    these two are compatible wrt what text-mode does.
> 
> This text is from `derived-mode-make-docstring'.  message-mode is
> derived from text-mode.

So is mail-mode, but the blurb is somehow still different, I don't
know why.

> >  . mail-mode uses `mail-yank-hooks'; message-mode doesn't appear to
> >    have such a facility.
> 
> ,----
> | ;; FIXME make it really obsolete.
> | (defvar mail-yank-hooks nil
> |   "Obsolete hook for modifying a citation just inserted in the mail buffer.
> | Each hook function can find the citation between (point) and (mark t).
> | And each hook function should leave point and mark around the citation
> | text as modified.
> | 
> | This is a normal hook, misnamed for historical reasons.
> | It is semi-obsolete and mail agents should no longer use it.")
> `----
> 
> Should we care about it if is obsolete?

It depends whether people are using it or not, IMO.  And we usually
declare a feature obsolete formally, and keep it that way for some
time, before removing it.

> >  . message-mode's default value of `message-citation-line-format'
> >    seems to produce different results compared to what `r' in Rmail
> >    produces.
> 
> AFAICS, `r' doesn't cite at all and produce not citation line (neither
> does `C-c C-y' (`mail-yank-original').

I mean the "John Doe writes" stuff vs the "From: ..." etc. produced by
Rmail's `r'.