Re: [Extra] Robert Wilton's Discuss on draft-ietf-extra-imap-fetch-preview-09: (with DISCUSS and COMMENT)

[Barry Leiba <[e-mail]>]

> >    This standardized display can reduce user confusion when using
> >    multiple clients, as abbreviated message representations in clients
> >    will show identical message contents.
> >
> > I didn't really find this reasoning to be compelling, and perhaps it could be
> > removed.  In my experience the amount of preview displayed depends on client
> > behaviour or settings (e.g., how much space to allow for previews).
>
> Perhaps some slight re-phrasing of this text will address your comment
> ℗rhaps changing the word "identical"), but the point here isn't that
> all clients will always present the preview in exactly the same way:
> indeed, one might present less text than another due to space
> limitations in the UI.  The point here is that if a message says that
> we have to discuss document status in the EXTRA working group and we
> should do it over lunch tomorrow and should we go for Chinese or
> Indian food and at what time... we won't wind up with one client's
> preview saying that the message is about the EXTRA working group's
> document status while another's says it's about lunch plans tomorrow
> and still another's that it's about China and India.  I think this is
> useful text making a useful point, and that we shouldn't remove it.

On thinking about re-phrasing, how does this sound?:

NEW
While different clients might generate quite different preview text,
having common preview text generated by the server can give a more
consistent user experience to those who use multiple clients.
END

Barry