Mailing lists and patches

Loupe has features for people who live on mailing lists, such as open-source developers: lists shown as forum-style threads, muting, replies to the list, and patches drawn as coloured diffs. They are always available; there is no special mode to turn on.

Lists as forum threads

Discussion lists (the lists people write to, rather than newsletters) are gathered in Subscriptions › Discussions. See Subscriptions for how Loupe tells them apart.

Tap a list to open it as threads, newest activity first. Each row shows:

• the thread’s title, without “Re:”, the list’s [tag] and [PATCH …] prefixes;
• a badge such as “PATCH v2 3/3” for patch series;
• up to three participants, the number of replies and the last activity;
• an unread dot.

Tap a thread to read it as a conversation.

Pin a list to Mailboxes

Long-press the list in Discussions (or use List Options at the bottom left of the list) and choose Pin to Mailboxes. Pinned lists appear in a Lists section on the Mailboxes screen, with their unread counts.

Write to the list

• New Message to List (bottom right in the list) starts a message to the list’s posting address.
• Reply to List replies to the list rather than to the sender. Long-press Reply in a conversation, or use Reply List in a message’s ⋯ menu. It appears on mail from lists that accept posts.

Mute a thread

Long-press a thread in the list and choose Mute Thread (or use Mute Thread in a message’s ⋯ menu). Loupe marks it read, and new messages in it arrive already read, so they don’t notify you or show as unread. This works like Thunderbird’s “Ignore Thread”.

• Muted threads are hidden from the list. List Options › Show Muted Threads shows them again.
• Unmute Thread brings a thread back.

Muting is kept on this phone only: other devices and mail apps don’t know about it.

Technical lists: plain text in Mono

Lists about code read best as plain text in a monospaced font, so that code, tables drawn with characters and patches stay aligned.

• For one list: long-press it in Discussions, or open List Options, and choose Open as Plain Text (Mono). Open in Default View undoes it.
• In Settings: Settings › Reading › Technical Lists lists your discussion lists, with a switch for each.

Messages from these lists then open in Plain view with the Mono font. The Aa button still switches any message, and a view you saved with “Remember for this sender” takes precedence.

Patches as diffs

When a message contains a patch, as made by git format-patch or pasted into a reply, Loupe draws it as a coloured diff, in Readable and Plain view:

• each file has a header with its path, how many lines were added and removed, and whether it is new, deleted, renamed or binary;
• added and removed lines are coloured;
• a diffstat (“3 files changed”) is folded into one line; tap it to see every file;
• a very long change shows its first 400 lines and a Show all … lines button.

Patches quoted in replies are drawn as diffs too, so you can follow a review.