[imp] Attachment icon missing

[Michael M Slusarz]

Quoting Claude Tompers <claude.tompers at restena.lu>:

> On 06/07/2012 09:25 PM, Michael M Slusarz wrote:
>> Quoting Claude Tompers <claude.tompers at restena.lu>:
>>
>>> On 06/07/2012 09:18 PM, Michael M Slusarz wrote:
>>>> Quoting Claude Tompers <claude.tompers at restena.lu>:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>
>>>>> I've got complaints from some users that the attachment icon is not
>>>>> always shown in the mail list.
>>>>> In at least one case, I could reproduce this. Is this a known issue ?
>>>>
>>>> No.  Please read the archives.  The short answer is that what users
>>>> think are attachments are NOT attachments - they are instead part of
>>>> a MIME container element.
>>>>
>>>> michael
>>> In this specific case it was a pdf document. I guess that one should
>>> be an attachment ?
>>
>> No.  It is probably a part of a multipart/alternative container.  So
>> it is, by definition, NOT an attachment (since multipart/alternative
>> parts can NEVER contain attachments - that's why they are
>> multipart/alternative).
>>
>> The message was probably sent from Apple Mail.  Which is known to be
>> terribly broken when it comes to e-mail.
>>
>> michael
>>
>> ___________________________________
>> Michael Slusarz [slusarz at horde.org]
>>
>
> Hi Michael,
>
> You guessed right, multipart/alternative and sent with Apple Mail.
> Thanks for the explanations.
> I have just one remaining question. Why not displaying this like an
> attachment since it is on from a standard user's point of view.
> Aren't other mail client's doing this too ? (thinking of Thunderbird for
> example)

Please read the archives for full discussion.  In short: there is  
nothing special about a PDF file, in and of itself, that makes it an  
attachment.  A text/plain part can be an attachment.  It solely  
depends on the MIME structure of the original message.

In this case, the sender has SPECIFICALLY INDICATED, BY SENDING AS A  
MULTIPART/ALTERNATIVE MESSAGE, THAT THEY DON'T CARE IF THE USER CAN'T  
VIEW THE PDF PART.  THEY HAVE SPECIFICALLY INDICATED THAT THIS PART  
SHOULD **NOT** BE SHOWN TO THE USER IF THE MUA DOES NOT SUPPORT (OR  
EVEN WANT TO) DISPLAY THAT PART INLINE.  THAT'S WHAT  
MULTIPART/ALTERNATIVE MEANS.

Apple is worth $600 billion dollars and they can't hire a engineer  
that understands this.  Blows my mind.

michael

___________________________________
Michael Slusarz [slusarz at horde.org]