Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!ames!pacbell!pbhyf!rob
From: rob@PacBell.COM (Rob Bernardo)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: Tagging...
Keywords: tags, behavior, elm
Message-ID: <6337@pbhyf.PacBell.COM>
Date: 30 Oct 89 02:55:38 GMT
References: <1169@ispi.UUCP> <440@hades.OZ> <9705@chinet.chi.il.us> <142@limbo.Intuitive.Com> <9737@chinet.chi.il.us>
Reply-To: rob@PacBell.COM (Rob Bernardo)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Lines: 31

In article <9737@chinet.chi.il.us> ignatz@chinet.chi.il.us (Dave Ihnat) writes:
+Dave Taylor brought up some good questions prompted by my request for an
+expanded role for the 't'ag operation.  Perhaps I may be permitted to look
+at them here:
+
+>The complexity isn't so much with forwarding, really, as it is with something
+>like 'reply'.  What does it mean, for example, to tag two messages from two
+>different people, then choose "reply"?  Should you be allowed to compose a
+>single message that would go to both of them?  Should they know of each other?
+>Or should you be creating a 'template' message that would then be automatically
+>sent to each of them, separately?
+
+Well, you're again asking a design question.  All of those could be answers--
+what would seem the most useful to the most people would be the behavior that
+should be implemented.

That's not a design issue, it's a requirements issue, i.e. you're dealing
with the functionality from a user perspective.

I think it's rather topsy-turvy to say, "Let's have a new command
(tagging with replying) and then figure out what functionality we want
to attach to it." Normally one asks for certain functionality (a/k/a
requirements) and then designs it in.

So let's begin again with this tagging issue: What functionality do we
wish to add to ELM?
-- 
Rob Bernardo      ...![backbone]!pacbell!pbhyf!rob -or- rob@pbhyf.PacBell.COM
  Product engineer, UNIX/C Reusable Code Library        Editor, "Go `C' UNIX"
  Office: (415) 823-2417                Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, California
  Residence: (415) 827-4301                     R BAR JB, Concord, California