[Bug 141565] New: Please persist encoding set manually for message

[Shai]

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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=141565         
           Summary: Please persist encoding set manually for message
           Product: kmail
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Debian testing
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: wishlist
          Priority: NOR
         Component: general
        AssignedTo: kdepim-bugs kde org
        ReportedBy: shai platonix com


Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.5.5)
Installed from:    Debian testing/unstable Packages

Mail messages sometimes arrive with wrong or insufficient encoding headers, causing KMail to present them wrong (well, KMail does the right thing technically, but the result is not what the user wants). To solve the problem, an option was added to change the encoding. First it was only available globally, and then it became available on a per-message basis; today, one may change the encoding of a message opened for presentation, without affecting program behavior on other messages. And there is much rejoicing.

However, one thing that is still missing is persistence of this encoding change: Assuming the general setting is "Auto", open an incorrectly-encoding-marked message; it shows wrong (as it should); set the encoding manually; now it shows right; close and reopen it; it shows wrong again. This Wish is for the change to be persisted.

Bug #92925 mentions the obvious way to do this, by a "X-KMail-CharsetOverride" header added to the message. A commenter on the bug argued against this for reasons of IMAP performance; I find this argument weak on two grounds: 1) Not all of us are using IMAP, and it seems a pity to take users of all protocols to a "lowest common denominator"; 2) Even for IMAP users, the cost easily pays back if the message is opened again. Thus, I would suggest an obscure setting in the configuration dialog, about whether to persist encoding changes, with options "Never", "Always", "Ask me", and the default, "Ask me only on IMAP".

I am opening this bug following a suggestion made on Bug #95078 (which, like Bug #92925, complained on inability to set encoding for a single message).