Re: [Evolution] Applying filters automatically.

[Pete Biggs <pete biggs org uk>]

> > >
> > But what *does* Thunderbird do?  A few people have said that it's better
> > at doing it, but no one has actually enumerated the logic that it goes
> > through.  i.e. does it only filter 'unread' or unseen to that particular
> > client instance or does it mark a message as having been filtered?
>
> Lets see if I can give a non-programmer's view of what tbird does ( I
> just installed it on my Fedora box to try with my University IMAP
> account).
>
> Tbird was set to check for new messages once every 10 minutes. I created
> a single message filter to match messages from another email list I am
> on. This filter was set to move any messages from this mailing list to a
> different folder on the IMAP server.
>
> When the 10 minutes were up tbird checked for new messages, notified me
> that new messages were downloaded, and then went through each new
> message that was downloaded and checked it against the filter. The two
> new messages that were from the mailing list were marked as read and
> marked deleted in the INBOX, the message was moved to the correct
> folder, where it was marked as Unread. The new messages not matching a
> filter, remained marked as unread in the INBOX.
>
> Tbird only filters new messages automatically - the ones it just
> downloaded, not others in my inbox.

I just did some tests - it appears that Thunderbird filters messages
that the particular instance hasn't seen before *and* that are unread.
i.e. messages that are read elsewhere are not filtered by Thunderbird
even if that instance hasn't seen them before.

The Tbird logic still doesn't get over my problem with the filtering
system - i.e. that mail I read in (say) a webmail client doesn't get
filtered when I start up Evo.

> This is what Evo does not do. All messages are left in the INBOX
> regardless of filters when new messages arrive in my INBOX. So tbird
> does what I want and Evo doesn't in this regard.

I think it's one of those times when the programmer has to make a choice
and go with it.  The choice that the Evo programmers clearly made is to
go with what the IMAP standard dictates - the Tbird programmers put in
their own logic.  Perhaps this is a case for more options - I can
foresee 3 choices:  IMAP server determines whats new; new to this copy
of Evo; new to this copy of Evo & unread.

P.