Re: [groff] Spooky action at a distance in line adjustment...sometimes

[Bob Proulx]

Hello Ralph, Doug, Groff List,

Ralph Corderoy wrote:
> > Alas, spooky.diff, allegedly at
> > http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/attachments/20180626/6721611f/attachment.diff
> > elicits 404 Not Found. It may be that some server or client is
> > allergic to unusual file extensions.
> 
> You subscribe to the digest.  The non-digest email, message-ID
> <address@hidden>, arrived here with
> all the parts attached.
...
> So I think it's just the digest that broke?  I've CC'd in the gnu.org
> folks that tend to the Mailman lists for their interest.

The mailing list management software in use is GNU Mailman.
Unfortunately GNU Mailman is buggy with regards to digests.  It
doesn't surprise me to read that Mailman isn't creating a digest
correctly with regards to attachments.  I am pretty sure I have run
into that before.

I don't need to tell you that mailing list digests are a very old
feature often available from mailing list management software.
However at this current time very few users know how to deal with
digests and very few use them.  Most users are not equiped to do so
and use digests incorrectly.  Therefore the feature gets very little
use and less testing and bugs slip through.  When dealing with digests
it is a feature that only a small sliver of the user population is
using.  In fact my policy dealing with digest problems for the masses
is to convert users from digests over to the non-digest regular
mailing list mode.  The regular mode is well tested and avoids the
problems with GNU Mailman digest mode.

I can only recommend that digest mode of Mailman be avoided.  I
recommend switching over to the regular mailing list mode.

Note that I am simply one of the volunteers helping with the mailing
lists.  I don't speak in any capacity other than the practicality of
working with Mailman and the mailing lists.  I don't have any ability
to fix bugs in Mailman myself.  But if someone else were to look into
the problem and make patches then I am sure we could get them
installed.  As they say, patches welcome. :-)

Bob