[Evolution-hackers] The evolution of Evolution...

[Mark Derricutt <mark talios com>]

Hi guys, just subscribed and thought I'd send out a quick email to
introduce myself, say hi, say a few good works, spark a few flames, then
sink back into lurk mode...

Anyway, the names Mark, developer from New Zealand ( old school Delphi
and currently Java, keeping an eye on Mono/C#/.NET/GtkSharp etc. etc.
etc. ).

I've not really done any C or C++ but have been known to possess enough
skill to wrangle printf into doing something reasonably good okish.

Anyway - why am I here?

For the last few months I've been following the Evolution blog and all
the kick arse new functionality that's being built into the application
( or platform? ), but every time I try to use Evolution (1.4.x) as my
main email client I keep hitting 3-4 small, but amazingly annoying
features that seem to be missing.

My mail client of choice is Mulberry, which I recall seeing being
mentioned in some of the original Evolution "design notes" as "do
everything Mulberry does, cause it does it so well" - which is does, its
problem however is that it looks pig ugly, and lacks other integration
items I want ( calendar, tasks etc. ).

Now where was I, oh yes - 3-4 small niggly things I wish Evolution could
do and I'd be a hell happy Evolution user, these may be small, they may
not be, but if I can get evolution to compile I don't mind attempting to
break things :)

Here they are:

1) Quote only selected text in replies.  I'm now used to Mulberry, Pan,
and some other applications only quoting the text I've selected ( if any
) when I reply.  This really cuts down on the large comment posts when
you only want to reply to a small portion.

2) Automatically hide read-messages in a folder.  I really hate having
to hit Alt-V+R each time I select a folder.  Especially for mailing
lists, ( and eventually usenet as I see NNTP support is on the way ).

3) Virtual Folders are great, but there not what I want, exactly. 
Mulberry provides a "new mail" cabinet.  A virtual folder root that
includes child nodes of folders with new messages.  With alot of folders
or usenet groups, quickly accessing those with new messages rather than
scrolling up and down a huge list is a god send for "power email users".

Hmm, only 3 real niggles actually.  Not sure how hard/easy any of those
would be.  Evolution already makes bold a folder with new mail, so it
shouldn't be all that hard to add in a routing with adds a child node to
a "New Mail" root, flowing down the hierarchy:

+ New Mail
 + my email,account
 |  + INBOX with new mail
 |  + Some Folder
 |    + The Folder with New Mail 
 + my other email account
    + A Folder
      + The folder with new mail

Thoughts?

Also - as RSS and RSS aggregators are a hot topic of development these
days, has anyone thought about the idea of implementing an RSS
aggregation store in Evolution?

Mark