Other mailers - good and bad points

[patl phoenix volant org]

Recent discussions have focused on a few points of Balsa's
current and proposed user interface; so I thought this might
be a good time to mention a few of the things I like and dislike
about some other mail user agents.  I'll focus on Netscape 4.5
Messenger (FreeBSD) and ML 3.3.


First, Netscape Messenger.  The appearance of the mail user
agent in Netscape has undergone frequent changes with diffent
Netscape releases.  The current version reflects an attempt
to satisfy all sides of the debate over what should be a separate
window and what should be a pane within the window.  Basicly it
lets the user choose.  This sort of flexability is a Very Good
Thing.  It lets everyone be happy in an area that where strong
opinions reign.

Also note the flexability provided in user control over what
columns are displayed, in which order, and what size in the
mailing list and message list windows.  More excellent design
choices.

Another good point is the general design of the mailing list
window itself. (Expandable tree list with user control over
whether to show counts.)

Bad points:

It only keeps message counts up to date for mailboxes that are
currently open.

I can't find any way to tell it -not- to open any servers until
I explicitly ask for it.  I'd really like to be able to have it
come up with all of the items in the mailbox list closed.

When a mailbox is opened, the message list is positioned at the
first message.  I'd like some way to tell it to automatically
scroll to the first unread message.



Now for ML

ML uses a multi-window interface.  The Mailbox/Open menu brings
up a dialog with a mailbox list; and there is a separate window
that you can bring up to list all of the mailboxes that you
currently have open.  It supports multiple mail list windows
so you can have multiple mailboxes open at once, and view the
message lists for each.  (Or switch one message list window among
all opened mailboxes.)  The use of separate windows also makes
it easy to have message windows open for more than one message
at a time.

One of ML's truely outstanding features is Virtual Mailboxes.
This allows you to apply filters within a mailbox and to see
a list of only those messages that match the chosen filter.
The opened mailbox window lists all of the virtual mailboxes
as sub-entries for each open mailbox.


Bad points:

When you open a mailbox, or switch to one using the Virtual
Mailboxes window, the end of the list is shown.  Again, I'd
really rather be able to have it go to the first unread message.
(Or leave it where it was if the mailbox was already open.)

You have to actually open each mailbox to get it to show up
in the Virtual Mailboxes window and display the current message
count.  This can mean a lot of open connections; even when you
have only one mail list window open.

The Virtual Mailbox window shows the message count and (virtual)
mailbox name in bold if there are new messages; but only shows
the total message count without a separate new message count.

If something happens to break one of the IMAP connections (say
a timeout, or the IMAP server shutting down and restarting),
it complains every few seconds, for every broken connection, in
a pop-up log window.  It doesn't appear to try to re-open the
connection though; it just keeps complaining until you close
the mailbox.

The most irritating mis-feature is the way scrolling list updates
were coded.  To avoid a rare bug in one release of Motif, it was
coded to delete and re-create the list every time the number of
items changes.  This means that it scrolls to the end of the list
every time.  (Or the beginning for the Virtual Mailboxes window.)
Which can be damned irritating if you're looking at the middle of
the list when some new mail comes in.



-Pat