Re: attachments and digest mode

[David Wright]

On Thu 05 May 2016 at 11:26:17 (-0700), Flaming Hakama by Elaine wrote:
> > This thread is dying a quick death.  I have raised this issue with the
> > nonsensical digest attachments several times in the last several years.
> > Those threads also died a quick death.  I wonder how many get the Lilypond
> > user list via the digest rather than as individual emails.  I would guess
> > maybe 4 or 5 get the digest, or else this issue would get at least a little
> > attention.
> 
> Another theory is that most people post code inline, so the use of
> attachments is a marginal practice in general, and therefore not worth the
> effort.

"Inline" is an ambiguous term. I understand that you probably mean
%%%%%
%{ an inline example %}
%%%%%

but there's a more "interesting" meaning in this discussion which is
where people post an inline image in their HTML code. These are not
displayed to people reading emails as text, not are they accessible to
people reading the digest (unless they're using Carl Sorensen's
"special mode" on Outlook).

> I certainly ignore messages that have code only in attachments.  Of course,
> that is by necessity since I can't access these attachments.  But I don't
> feel like I've been left out of much follow-up discussion on that basis,
> since it seems like most replies are inline.
> 
> In most cases, I assume attachments are used because the poster has not
> bothered to create a minimal example.  Because if they did, it would be
> easier to include the code as part of their actual message.

Well, the last attachments I sent were fairly close to minimal for the
problem in hand (making LilyPond run the python interpreter to write LP
code which LP immediately interprets in the same run).

[-- Attachment #2: make-cake.py --]
[-- Type: text/x-python, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 0.1K --]

outfile = open('eat-me.ly', 'w')
print('{ c\'4 }', file=outfile)

[-- Attachment #3: yummy.ly --]
[-- Type: text/x-lilypond, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 0.1K --]

pyMx =
#(define-void-function (parser location)()
    (system "python3 make-cake.py")
  )

\pyMx

\include "eat-me.ly"

[-- Attachment #4: yummy.pdf --]
[-- Type: application/pdf, Encoding: base64, Size: 25K --]

[-- application/pdf is unsupported (use 'v' to view this part) --]

[-- Attachment #5: eat-me.ly --]
[-- Type: text/x-lilypond, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 0.1K --]

{ c'4 }

[-- Attachment #6 --]
[-- Type: text/plain, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 0.1K --]

_______________________________________________

> (Of course, there are some cases where attachments are more appropriate.
> But there are workarounds--you can always just ask the poster to resend you
> the attachments in a private email if you feel compelled to help out.  So,
> this issue is not a deal-breaker for me.)
> 
> > Did you succeed in copying David Linn?  Did you get a response?  I don?t
> > think he?s responded on the list.  Do you know any powers that be at
> > gnu.org that are a little lower in the hierarchy?
> 
> I have not made any attempts to contact anyone specific.
> 
> My assumption is that anyone managing a list also reads it.  If not, the
> list needs a new or additional manager, or a liaison.

Yes, but a person who volunteered (or was asked) to manage a list may
not be deal with technical problems such as those we are discussing.
I sent my original observations to address@hidden but, as I said,
that might be *too* far up the chain.

Here's the text (inline!):

✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂

Subject: Broken link

Could you tell me why this link does not exist on your server?

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/attachments/20160312/6eba7c13/attachment.png

I have taken this link from the following email which is a
lilypond-user digest:

Message-ID: <address@hidden>

The first message in this digest has a "scrubbed" attachment.
An email version of this message received directly from the list would
have this attachment. The digest contains the link above in its place.
There is no obvious route by which the attachment is available.

Interestingly however, the attachment *is* available on your server
but at a different address. In this case it is:

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/2016-03/pngHJxj6irVRF.png

Why is this address not given in the digest?

Cheers,
David.

✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂✂

Perhaps it was too matter-of-fact.

Cheers,
David.