Re: Replying to the list (was: [1003.1(2016)/Issue7+TC2 0001138]: Add strsignal(), sig2str() and str2sig() to the standard.)

[Geoff Clare via austin-group-l at The Open Group]

Robert Elz wrote, on 09 Sep 2020:
> 
> And thanks for the tutorial on how to use e-mail - but my e-mail client
> doesn't have a "reply all" function, I don't want it to, the notion of
> just "reply" vs "reply all" is absurdly simplistic.   What I have is "reply"
> which by default replies to the Reply-To if there is one, otherwise the
> From+To+Cc list (more or less the equivalent of what you consider to be
> "Reply All" I assume).

There's your problem right there.  You are using an email client that
is not fit for purpose.

> That's the way it should work - the Reply-To field
> is the one you are supposed to use to suggest to me where you prefer to have
> replies sent

The part after the "-" is (partially) correct. However, it in no way
implies that email clients should behave the way yours does.

The Reply-To header is used to indicate where the author prefers to
have replies sent *instead of the address in the From header*.

Therefore when replying (using whichever of the reply functions the email
client provides) the only difference that the presence of Reply-To should
have is that the reply address(es) the client offers contain the Reply-To
address(es) in place of the From address.  All other addresses (if any)
taken from other headers should be the same. Using the presence of
Reply-To to decide whether or not to include To+CC is just plain broken.

-- 
Geoff Clare <g.cl...@opengroup.org>
The Open Group, Apex Plaza, Forbury Road, Reading, RG1 1AX, England