[time-nuts] HP5370 board needed

Mike S mikes at flatsurface.com
Tue Apr 12 20:53:12 UTC 2011


At 04:03 PM 4/12/2011, Rex wrote...
>Email message headers contain a thread-index number. Any decent email 
>program groups the messages into threads using this (normally hidden) 
>information.

The Thread-Index: header (and Thread-Topic:) is a completely 
proprietary, non-standard header created by Microsoft. From that, 
"decent email program" does not follow.

The correct header to use is References:, as defined in RFC 1036 (and 
RFC 2822), and to a lesser extent, In-Reply-To:, which is a mess.

But, since both References: and In-Reply-To: were very loosely defined 
when originally created in RFC 822, threading is, and always will be, 
unreliable.

The OP apparently replied to an existing message and put a new subject 
in. His MUA put in fresh Thread-*: headers, and handled References: and 
Reply-To: properly. Your MUA used the updated References and/or 
Reply-To to place that message into an existing thread.

None of that is unreasonable, none of it violates standards, yet it 
breaks threading, because support for threading was never properly 
specified to begin with. Pointing fingers at someone is misplacing 
blame, and pissing into the wind, too.






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