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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Question for Kmail developers
From:       Michael =?iso-8859-1?q?H=E4ckel?= <Michael () Haeckel ! Net>
Date:       2001-01-28 22:19:39
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On Sunday, 28. January 2001 22:24, John Califf wrote:
>
> The problem is not bugs but lack of needed features.  The biggest lack
> is that threads can't be collapsed and expanded.  This makes managing
> list mail particularly unwieldy. Further, when any link in a thread is
> deleted the whole thread becomes shattered into many smaller parts
> (apparently based on date).  Browsing inbox mail when this happens

If you saw off a branch of a real tree, then the branch also falls to the 
ground and doesn't remain on the tree. I consider that behavior correct. The 
rest of the mails simply doesn't contain the required information any more. 
It seems that Netscape does threading according to the subject and only 
groups the mails together. KMail does threading according to the message id 
and can display the real tree, how the replies belong to each other.

> results in confusing navigation, at least in my experience. Finally,
> there is very little info given in the left hand panel about what's in
> the folders and status bar feedback is minimal to nonexistent, and the
> methods of viewing contents of folders and threads are very limited
> compared with Netscape mail.

Sorry, I currently don't know what is limited. Ok, the total number of mails 
is only displayed in the status bar, when the folder is entered.

> I'm aware that several patches have been submitted to address some of
> these issues, particularly collapsing and expanding threads.  However,
> none of them seem to have been applied.  I am using a fairly recent
> kdenetwork cvs update and just checked again with webcvs and nothing
> seems to have changed.

None of them was applied, because they were buggy or had some other problems 
and the authors didn't fix them so far. At least I don't like committing 
patches I have to fix first, if I don't consider the feature useful myself. I 
prefer working on more important stuff (for example imap).

> I don't think kmail needs a whole lot of "features" but it at least
> needs these.  If kmail met my needs I'd certainly be using it, if for no
> other reason than to avoid the additional overhead of Netscape when Kde
> is already running.  Netscape mail is incredibly ugly but it has the
> features I need to deal with mailing list traffic.

At least I can handle around 400 mails per day very well with KMail and some 
other people seem also to be able to do that.

I think that is always the same. Every users thinks about one or two 
features, that are ever missing, but these feature vary from user to user, 
therefore the whole wishlist is much bigger.

> Are there any plans to add such features for viewing and arranging
> contents of folders and threads, and giving the user a better "bird's
> eye view" of the entire contents for more coherent navigation?  With
> konqueror now in such good shape this is really needed for 2.1 but
> apparently it's too late for that.  How about for Kde 2.2?

Planned is everything someone wants to work on.
This is a developers mailing list of an open source project. No one of the 
KMail devolopers is paid for his work, we do it all in our spare time.
Feel free to implement these features if you need them. I gladly commit 
patches, if they work.

Regards,
Michael Häckel

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