Re: possible new sort option

[andré <andr55 laposte net>]

Le 2018-08-05 à 18:11, Peter Bloomfield a écrit :
> On 08/05/2018 12:16:03 PM Sun, Jack via balsa-list wrote:
> > Just for info, I did get a response to my message to JWZ.  I'll 
> > forward it later, but I think he agrees that it should be reasonable 
> > to not try to thread messages which don't use the Response headers 
> > properly (or at all, actually).  Unfortunately, I think there are 
> > enough still used mail readers that do this (not using Response) as 
> > witnessed by many mailing list responses that lose threading in Pan, 
> > which I am assuming is threading without just using Subject:.
> >
> > I still need to work through the JWZ algorithm in detail to see if 
> > there are other options, as he did point out this problem shows up in 
> > the fallback stuff when there are no References.
>
> Personally, I'd like to have the 'View' menu just offer a check-box for 
> 'Thread messages', instead of the current radio-buttons 'Flat', 
> 'Simple', and 'JWZ'. The *only* reason for 'Simple', to my mind, is that 
> it doesn't thread by subject, and I feel that that should be a 
> preference item for threading; other than that, JWZ is just a vastly 
> better algorithm. Jack has good reason for threading by subject, and I 
> find it more often a nuisance, so that's personal, and should be a 
> preference (possibly by folder--Ugh!). 'JWZ' is totally inscrutable to 
> new users, and I feel it would be good to drop it from the UI.
>
> Just my 2¢…
>
> Peter
I agree that sorting by the date of the last item in the thread makes 
the most sense.  That is at least an option (if not the default) for 
Mozilla thunderbird/seamonkey.

From how JWZ describes his approach for mbox format, what 
thunderbird/seamonkey does seems close, with small summary files and 
large mbox files with many messages together.
I don't see the point of presenting that as an option separate from mbox.

A problem with threading by subject is that often (at least on the lists 
I subscribe to) the subject is modified (at least a little), but the 
thread continues on essentially the same topic.

Although having a reply-to address in the header is definitely 
preferable for mailing lists, I don't see how that has much affect on 
threads, except that from time to time a reply doesn't go directly to 
the list, but appears in a subsequent message with a reply to the reply.

my 2¢

--
André