Subject: pine 4.40 question

From: Joel Boonstra <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 17:08:53 -0400 (EDT)

Hello,

I just successfully installed pine 4.40 on my RedHat 7.1 machine.  In
comparing it with 4.33, it seems that the SIZE index-format token has
changed in behavior slightly.  In 4.33, sizes were presented with commas
separating the numbers at logical places; 4.40 doesn't seem to use commas
at all.  Also, the threshold for displaying a size in Kilobytes or bytes
seems to have changed.  Here are a few examples:

4.33:
=====
  8 +   01.07.18 sender             (1,031) subject
  9 +   01.08.03 sender             (3,258) subject
 10 +   01.08.04 sender            (11,291) subject
 11 +   01.08.27 sender             (3,240) subject
=====

versus 4.40:
=====
  8 +   01.07.18 sender              (1031) subject
  9 +   01.08.03 sender              (3258) subject
 10 +   01.08.04 sender               (11K) subject
 11 +   01.08.27 sender              (3240) subject
=====

Obviously the sender and subject lines have been changed by me, but the
rest is copied straight from the screen.  You can see that the 11K message
is displayed in bytes in 4.33, but in K in 4.40.  I'm also using a custom
index-format, but I've verified this on the standard index-format, as
well.

I guess I don't mind the change, but I'm wondering if that was intentional
or not, and if it was, what the rationale behind it was.  Is it possible
to define the threshold and the display format for the SIZE token?  I
looked at the other tokens, but they don't seem to accomplish this,
either.

I can't find this documented in the changelog, and I don't recall seeing
discussion on this list about it, either.  If this is old hat, please
point me to the appropriate URL, and I'll be quiet.

TIA,

-- 
[ joel boonstra | [email-masked] ]

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From: Eduardo Chappa <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 14:32:39 -0700 (PDT)

*** Joel Boonstra ([email-masked]) wrote in the pine-info list today:

:) I just successfully installed pine 4.40 on my RedHat 7.1 machine.  In
:) comparing it with 4.33, it seems that the SIZE index-format token has
:) changed in behavior slightly.  In 4.33, sizes were presented with commas
:) separating the numbers at logical places; 4.40 doesn't seem to use commas
:) at all.

This change is not documented in the release notes, but in the definition
of the token SIZE:

  SIZE
      This token represents the total size, in bytes, of the message.
      If a "K" (Kilobyte) follows the number, the size is approximately
      1,000 times that many bytes (rounded to the nearest 1,000). If an
      "M" (Megabyte) follows the number, the size is approximately
      1,000,000 times that many bytes.

I have no idea why it was changed, though.

-- 
Eduardo
http://www.math.washington.edu/~chappa/pine/

---

From: Joel Boonstra <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 11:54:07 -0400 (EDT)

Eduardo,

>       1,000,000 times that many bytes.

But that's not really a change from the last documentation, just an
addition.  Here's what 4.33 says:

  SIZE

So the difference is that it explains what the 'K' and the 'M' next to the
message size means.  I'm not sure if 4.33 used the 'M', as I don't
routinely get multi-megabyte messages.  However, I know that 4.33 used the
'K' to represent the size in kilobytes, so the documentation above would
be true for 4.33, as well.

The documentation doesn't indicate any sort of a pattern as to the
presentation of the size, just that if you see a 'K', it means Kilobytes.

Again, I'm harping on a pretty small point, but I was used to seeing my
message sizes one way, and they're different now.  I can probably
eventually deal with change, but believe it or not, it's throwing me off
right now.  Maybe I'm just crazy...

---

From: Eduardo Chappa <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 09:34:18 -0700 (PDT)

*** Joel Boonstra ([email-masked]) wrote today:

:) But that's not really a change from the last documentation, just an
:) addition.  Here's what 4.33 says:
:)
:)   SIZE
:)       This token represents the total size, in bytes, of the message.
:)
:) So the difference is that it explains what the 'K' and the 'M' next to the
:) message size means.

I also noticed the difference, I tested pre-releases and noticed the
change a few weeks ago. I thought it was a bug, because there is a new
token called KSIZE, which expresses everything in terms of kilobytes, but
then I went and read the documentation and noticed that the change was
documented, so it was not a bug. I didn't like it either. I hope you can
convince the right people to change it back.

---

From: Joel Boonstra <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 13:09:58 -0400 (EDT)

> convince the right people to change it back.

I can submit a bug report, but as you say, it's not a bug.  Would 'the
right people' be lurking anywhere on this list?  If not, what's the best
route to suggest a change?

Joel

---

From: Eduardo Chappa <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 10:17:13 -0700 (PDT)

:) I can submit a bug report, but as you say, it's not a bug. Would 'the
:) right people' be lurking anywhere on this list? If not, what's the best
:) route to suggest a change?

Yes, the right people are reading the list. By the way, you have my
support, so I guess it makes it two votes :).

---

From: Steve Hubert <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 11:41:10 -0700 (Pacific Daylight Time)

We'll add back a size token which includes commas for 4.41. Thanks.

-- 
Steve Hubert <[email-masked]>
Networks and Distributed Computing, Univ. of Washington, Seattle