Comment 208 for bug 1065126

(In reply to andreas.fischlin from comment #199)
> (In reply to Mihovil Stanic [:Mikeyy - L10n HR] from comment #197)
> > Not sure why all Thunderbird related bug reports are dumped into this Firefox bug.
> > Firefox and Thunderbird have wildly different use case. While "remembering with which app to open certain files" isn't much of an issue for Firefox, it's big issue in Thunderbird when handling lots of email with attachments.
> >
> > Like some users before me, I suggest decoupling Thunderbird issue from Firefox and fixing it (hacky or not) on Thunderbird side, while leaving Mozilla to decide whatever think it's best for Firefox. If Mozilla fixes Firefox eventually, TB fix can be reverted.
> >
> > As far as I can see, there is currently 3 TB bugs reported in last month for this exact issue, all marked as duplicate of this bug, which means users are reacting to it.
>
> As FF and TB were made similar in terms of the code that is of relevance here, I am not convinced that a separate handling of the two applications is doable. I say this also, as this decision to use common code may be entrenched into the code maintenance too much to be sensible. But this is to decide by the programmers of these applications, not me (I progam other things).
>
> Moreover, the user experience is basically the same. There are needs to view attachments and there are true downloads in both applications and from the perspective of the user experience I argue that it makes a lot of sense to treat them in the same manner, i.e. not only common code is less to maintain, but also handling the same user experience in the same way is only beneficial to all when based on a good user model.
>
> However, there seems to be no solid user model for how to handle files, i.e. attachments in case of TB and linked files in case of FF. The problem is that the programmers seem not to understand the issues that users of the applications are confronted with and AFAIK there was never a proper treatment of these issues done. E.g. first there is the common problem of the inability of separating the viewing of attachments (TB) or linked files (FF) from actual downloading when a user wishes to keep those files on her system. Admitted, this has little to do with this bug, yet it relates to the same irritating decisions of the programmers what the user experience ought to be when users access attachments (TB) or linked files (FF). The 2nd problem, this very bug we discuss here, is then also not handled properly since years, as user experience seems here not to matter much. I have to admit, for reasons that escape me as e.g. FF is otherwise a wonderful application in many respects. But the issues related to the user experience in terms of how attachments are handled may indeed matter more in the case of TB. I for instance no longer use TB for exactly these reasons. In this respect I agree with you.

This would make a good statement for the use of the old "Seamonkey" (previously Netscape) model, with both integrated together. Maybe keeping that part of the project alive would have kept some commonality between Firefox and Thunderbird even now. Is "Seamonkey" still even a thing? If so, maybe there is a hint or a clue for how to fix this in that.