[Users] Fresh Installation of Claws-Mail

[J. Paul Bissonnette]

On Sat, 2 May 2020 07:44:04 -0400
Jerry <jerry at seibercom.net> wrote:

> On Sat, 2 May 2020 08:46:05 +0600, Dustin Miller stated:
> >On Fri, 1 May 2020 10:21:49 -0400
> >Jerry <jerry at seibercom.net> wrote:
> >  
> >> On Fri, 1 May 2020 13:57:52 -0000, Paul stated:    
> >> >According to this page, there is no dillo plugin, no fancy plugin
> >> >and no litehml plugin package.
> >> >https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=claws-mail&stype=all    
> >> 
> >> Thanks Paul. I am off to complain to the port maintainer.
> >>     
> >DM: Jerry, as a temporary workaround or longer-term alternative to
> >the HTML plugins (i.e. if they're not rendering correctly), I have
> >often found it useful to just open an email externally in a browser.
> >If you have the browser you want selected in Preferences and you
> >also use the setting to select the HTML part of an email if there is
> >one, then a simple key-press ('L' is default) will open it in the
> >browser of your choice. I usually have my browser open anyway, so
> >it's relatively quick and basically the only thing (I think) you
> >need to adjust to is needing to go back and forth between windows
> >(on many systems, Alt-Tab works for this toggling).
> >
> >DM: I rarely had problems with the Fancy plugin's rendering, but
> >just a heads-up to you that I'm pretty sure you will find that both
> >the Dillo and LiteHtml plugins often have rendering issues that are
> >'deal-breakers' unless you only need to view very simple HTML
> >emails. I currently use the LiteHtml plugin, but I guesstimate that
> >I usually open at least 70-90% of my HTML emails in an external
> >browser for readability and to make sure I don't miss anything that
> >can sometimes be 'hidden' by the plugin's rendering.
> >
> >DM: You may already know some/all of this, but I thought I'd post it
> >in case it's helpful to you and/or others. Cheers, ---Dustin  
> 
> I work for a municipality. A large percentage of the emails I receive
> are in HTML format, probably via MS Outlook, but I have never
> investigated that aspect. In any case, being able to 'easily' and
> 'correctly' render HTML email and being able to follow any
> embedded links are imperative in my daily work.
> 
> I certainly do not want to offend anyone; however, 'dillo' sucks. I
> don't know why the claws-mail team chose it for their HTML
> engine. As far as I can tell, it is not even maintained. I have never
> used the 'LiteHTML' plug-in. I have heard that at best it is mediocre
> but never-the-less, better than 'dillo.' The 'fancy' plug-in worked
> exceptionally well. Unfortunately, it was removed from FreeBSD due to
> a security problem with 'webkitGTK,' I was told. I am certainly not a
> very good programmer. I can barely write, "Hello World."

> I do wish
> that someone with more experience than myself would take the time to
> update 'fancy' to use modern and safer alternatives.

I use fancy for years; tried dillo and never got it to work to any
satisfaction.


> 
> I have had and continue to use an external browser to view email. It
> is just an extra step that I would not be forced to do. I have been
> told by friends to switch to 'Thunderbird' or some other modern  MUA,
> but I have been using claws-mail for years, and I do not want to
> switch if it is not necessary.
> 
> Oh well, tantum tempus dicet.
>