********************************************************************** FTSC FIDONET TECHNICAL STANDARDS COMMITTEE ********************************************************************** Publication: FRL-1007 Revision: 1 Title: Numeric reply indication in FTN subject lines Author: Odinn Sorensen, 2:236/77 Issue Date: 27 August 2003 Review Date: N/A ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: 1. Scope 2. Format 3. Reply procedure ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Status of this document ----------------------- This document is a Fidonet Reference Library document (FRL). This document arises from, and obsoletes FSP-1002.002 which was not promoted to a Fidonet standard. The reasons for this decision are given below. This document is released to the public domain, and may be used, copied or modified for any purpose whatsoever. Adjudication ------------ The FTSC decided not to recommend FSP-1002.002 for promotion to a FidoNet Standard as no evidence of current and/or common usage could be discovered. Additionally, technical reasons such as interference with subject based reply linking in unaware implementations and limited reply depth, lead the FTSC to believe this practise has been "strongly depreciated" in favour of FTS-0009 (MSGID/REPLY control paragraphs) for some time. Abstract -------- When making a reply to a message, there are currently three common ways to handle the subject line: 1. Don't change it. 2. Insert the string "Re: " in front of it. 3. Insert the string "Re^n: " in front of it, where 'n' is increased by one if the original subject was already a reply. This document concerns itself with specifying the third variant. 1. Scope -------- This standard is specified for all FTN messages. Implementations will typically be message editors and other software that creates replies to messages. 2. Format --------- The format is "Re^n: ", where n is an unsigned integer number with one or more digits. The range of the number must be at least 0 to 255. Negative numbers are not allowed. Note that there must be a space after the colon. The letters are not case sensitive, but uppercase 'R' and lowercase 'e' is recommended. 3. Reply procedure ------------------ When making a reply that conforms to this specification, this procedure, or a functionally identical one, must be followed: 1. If the original subject does not have a leading "Re: " or "Re^n: ", put the string "Re: " in front of it. Don't use a number here. Example: "Hello world" -> "Re: Hello world" 2. If the original subject has a leading "Re: ", put the string "Re^2: " in front of the subject. Example: "Re: Hello world" -> "Re^2: Hello world" 3. If the original subject has a leading "Re^n: ", increase the number 'n' by one and modify the subject accordingly. Example: "Re^4: Hello world" -> "Re^5: Hello world" Notes: * The numbers 0 and 1 should not occur in the "Re^n: " string under normal circumstances, but a robust implementation should just increase the number in any case. * The number should not be increased beyond the range of the number type used in the implementation, or in other words, it should not roll around to zero. If it can't be increased, leave it alone. * When inserting the "Re: " or "Re^n: " string in front of the subject, information from the end might be lost, because the message storage or packet formats use fixed length subject fields. Intelligent subject-based reply linking software should be aware of this and try to link correctly anyway. A. Author contact data ---------------------- Odinn Sorensen Fidonet: 2:236/77 E-mail: odinn@goldware.dk WWW: http://www.goldware.dk B. History ---------- Rev.1, 971011: First release. Rev.2, 971019: Added note that "Re" is not case sensitive. ------ 030725: FSP-1002.002 reassigned to FRL-1007.001 **********************************************************************