Simplification of preferences

[Toralf <toralf procaptura com>]

The recent discussion on the Preferences layout vs the Human Interface 
Guidelines inspired me to go through the settings and consider which 
ones might be removed or changed to make the application easier to use 
and simpler to maintain (referring to the article on 
over-configurability mentioned by someone.) My conclusions are 
summarised below. Comments are very welcome.

Note that if a decision is made to simplify the interface and internal 
preference handling, I'd be happy to help, as deleting code is one of 
my favourite pastimes.

Now I hope everyone understands the tree layout of this message ;-)

Mail Options
   Incoming
     Check IMAP/Check INBOX only
	Never liked these. I'd prefer being able to choose between e.g.
	1. Check all folders
	2. Check open folders
	3. Check current (viewed) folder
	But perhaps we could remove the setting and agree on one mode, 
like
	2. above.
     Display message if mail has arrived in an open mailbox
	Do we really need this?
     Do background check quietly (no messages in status bar)
	And this?
     Quoted text regular expression
	Find a reasonable default and remove setting.

  Outgoing
     Send message as 'text/plain;format=flowed'
	Maybe this could always be on, but with some way of disabling
	it for individual messages via Compose window.
     Edit headers in external editor
	Does anyone ever do that?
     Don't include HTML parts as text when replying or forwarding mail
	Not necessary with proper multipart/alternative handling
	(introduced a after this setting) and *basic* HTML support
	(I've submitted patches for that.)
     Forward a mail as attachment instead of quoting it
	Always do that; remove setting (but perhaps keep
	special menu selection for "forward inline".)
     Copy outgoing message to sentbox
	Belongs in Identities in the sense that it complements Bcc: 
setting.


Display
   Display
     Main Window
	Maybe a slightly less configurable layout would be OK.
     Display Progress Dialog
	Hard-code a suitable setting and remove from preferences.

   Status messages
	Shouldn't be configurable, at least not via a dialog accessible
	to normal users.

   Threading
	Remove. Hardcode default e.g. to JZW, but store View menu 
settings
	on an individual mailbox basis, instead.


Misc
   Debug
	Not for regular users and thus has no place in Preferences.
	Use command line, environment or hidden dialog instead.
   Automatically close mailbox...
	Do we really need that? How lazy are we?
   Drag and drop moves messages by default
	Remove. Us modifiers (the usual desktop way) to distinguish 
between
	move and copy.


Startup
   Open Inbox upon startup
	Maybe we should always do that? Or use (existing) command line
	option only to control behaviour.
   Check mail upon startup
	Remove preference; decide on sensible behaviour common to all.
   Remember open mailbox between sessions
	Possibly useful, but is it worth the effort?
   IMAP Folder Scanning
	Move settings to Mail Options/Incoming.

--
- Toralf