[Kde-pim] HTML support in Kmail

[Ingo Klöcker]

On Friday 06 November 2009, nicco ts wrote:
> Hi Guys,
>
> this is the first time I'm writing to this mailing list.
> Normally I wouldn't do that, but it could be the last chance how to
> speed up some big problem in Kmail.
> It's kind of special thing, because I know thousands of people don't
> use it at all (including Kmail developers) and thousands of people
> who are desperate about that (employees working in Outlook like
> companies). Yes it is HTML e-mail support.
>
> And I must also say, that it has poor level in Kmail comparing with
> the leading products:
> 1. Microsoft Outlook
> 2. Yahoo Zimbra Desktop
> 3. Mozilla Thunderbird
> 4. Novell Evolution
> 5. IBM Lotus Notes
>
> The question could appear why I bother you with this if I have 5
> additional clients I can use. Well, I can tell you, non of them is
> perfect and have some drawbacks but the main thing is, they are not
> Qt4 and KDE4 integrated.
>
> So is there a latitude to implement HTML into Kmail? Or is it wasting
> of time to require it?

As far as I know no core developer has an interest in improving the HTML 
support in KMail because there are, in our opinion, much more 
interesting and important things that need improving. Currently, all 
core developers are working on porting KMail to a new backend. There is 
at least one person who sporadically improves the HTML support.

So, unless a developer, who is interested in making HTML support in 
KMail rock, shows up not much will happen in this area. The biggest 
problem with respect to HTML support in KMail is the lack of a powerful 
WYSIWYG HTML editor written in Qt that we could use in KMail. The rich 
text editor that comes with Qt and that we are currently using is way 
too limited.


> It's about 2 problems in Kmail:
>
> 1) is Bug 207779 which removes empty lines while composing in HTML

This bug should be fixable with the rich text editor we currently use.


> 2) is  Bug 86423 when you Reply to HTML e-mail, then formating is
> destroyed and placed as plain text and even point 1) is applied, so
> you also lose empty lines.

The reason for this is the lack of a powerful HTML editor. The rich text 
editor has support for a very small fraction of HTML. Thus it's 
difficult or impossible to keep the formatting.


> Why it is so important?
> Because in Outlook like companies e-mail is the main tool and if you
> discuss something with 10 different people and everybody adds
> something into history, everything is clearly separated by line from
> the bottom to the top. So it isn't destroyed into plaintext and
> fonts, colors, pictures aren't lost. Anytime you look back, then you
> see what this person wrote you and you can refer to this.
>
> I see you guys use separator in RE, which after while looks like this:
> >>>la
> >>>
> >>>>bla
> >>>>bla
> >>>
> >>>la
> >>>
> >>>>bla
> >>>
> >>>la
> >>
> >>ha
> >
> >ta
> >
> >>hs
>
> and attached is Outlook way

So what. KMail supports both styles. Really the only problem is that 
KMail lacks a powerful HTML editor because KDE lacks a powerful WYSIWYG 
HTML editor. That's all. The problem is that such an editor does not 
materialize out of thin air.


Regards,
Ingo
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