questions about tin-1.5.6 to tin-1.5.7 misc.c:copy_body() change

between tin 1.5.6 and tin 1.5.7 misc.c:copy_body() was changed -
does anyone remeber why? it may leed to wrong indented underlining
                                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

--- tin-1.5.6/src/misc.c	2000-08-03 15:49:22.000000000 +0200
+++ tin-1.5.7/src/misc.c	2000-10-19 19:46:46.000000000 +0200
@@ -174,6 +174,8 @@
  * copy the body of articles with given file pointers,
  * prefix (= quote_chars), initials of the articles author
  * with_sig is set if the signature should be quoted
+ *
+ * TODO: rewrite from scratch, the code is awfull
  */
 void
 copy_body (
@@ -244,10 +246,9 @@
 			} else	/* line is empty */
 					retcode = fprintf (fp_op, "%s\n", (tinrc.quote_empty_lines ? prefixbuf : ""));
 		} else {		/* no initials in quote_string, just copy */
-			if ((buf[0] != '\n') || tinrc.quote_empty_lines) {
-				/* use blank-stripped quote string if line is already quoted */
-					retcode = fprintf (fp_op, "%s%s", ((buf[0] == '>') ? prefixbuf : prefix), buf);
-			} else
+			if ((buf[0] != '\n') || tinrc.quote_empty_lines)
+				retcode = fprintf (fp_op, "%s%s", ((buf[0] == '>' || buf[0] == ' ') ? prefixbuf : prefix), buf);  /* use blank-stripped quote string if line is already quoted or beginns with a space */
+			else
 				retcode = fprintf (fp_op, "\n");
 		}
 		if (retcode == EOF) {