# @ids are a list of record IDs to display.  they're sorted by id because newer messages have higher id numbers
  @sorted_ids = reverse sort { $a cmp $b } @ids;
  foreach (@sorted_ids) {
# this function displays a tree for each id given.  the function wil follow.
    &do_tree ($_);
  }


sub do_tree {
# --------------------------------------------------------
# this is the tree loop that call itself to display records in 
# tree form.  pass it some record ids and see what happens!

  my %rec = &get_record ($_[0]);
  my @children;
  my @kids = split (/ /, $rec{'Children'}); # get all the kids
  foreach $kid (@kids) { push (@children, $kid) if ($kid); } # remove blanks

  if (@children) { # if kids then loop
    @sorted_children = sort { $a cmp $b } @children;
    print "<li>[$rec{'ID'}] $rec{'Subject'}<ul>\n";
    foreach $child (@sorted_children) {
# here, the function calls itself.  is there a better way to do this or am i doing this wrong?
      &do_tree ($child);
    }
    print "</ul></li>\n";
  }
  else { # no kids?  actually display the record then
    print "<li>[$rec{'ID'}] $rec{'Subject'}</li>\n";
  }
}