[Evolution] Search boxes and UI meddling

[Andrew Montalenti <ajm pixelmonkey org>]

Hi,

I've been an Evolution user for a long time.  The main reason I use
Evolution is for its search/indexing features, since I have huge mail
boxes and like to be able to search through them quickly.

In recent versions of Evolution (I guess beyond 2.7, I'm using 2.8.1)
the Search Box at the top of the message view was "redesigned".  I think
this redesign was actually a step backward, and would like to know if
other people have raised this concern.

Aside from the silliness that the box is just too small, I don't
understand why it seems to make sense to have a click on the tiny icon
of a magnifying glass change in what part of a message you are
searching, and to click a paint brush to clear the message (you may tell
me that's a broom, but at that size, it's a paint brush).  When I am
searching within a message, I don't even know I am because the gray text
for "Message contains" only appears when my search query is empty.
Considering these searches are "sticky" to the folder I'm in, I may very
well return back to a folder I previously searched for "dinner" and not
know whether I search the subject/sender or the message itself, unless I
click that silly magnifying glass again.

I also don't get why the "Show" pull down exists.  I think it would make
more sense if that Show pull down showed _your_ saved searches, rather
than some hard coded ones some other developer thought I'd find useful.
I don't even use labels (and why should I, Evolution doesn't even let me
customize them), but even so in the "Show" menu I have not one but six
options related to labels.  Likewise, I don't use Evolution's built-in
Junk mail filtering (I use spam assassin externally since for some
reason it's much faster that way), and have another wasted option there
for "Messages Not Junk".  Less than half the options are therefore even
usable by me, but I can't get rid of them and what's even more
frustrating is that any of them could be emulated by a Saved Search,
which _don't_ show up there.

Does anyone else agree with me as to the silliness of these UI
redesigns?  I hate to be a whiner and if I had more than a few moments
I'd scratch the itches myself, but I really would like to know what
inspired these steps backward, and see if there is any agreement about
undoing them.

Andrew