Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!wubios!phil
From: phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: Reverse Message Subject
Message-ID: <1990Oct17.020636.7697@wubios.wustl.edu>
Date: 17 Oct 90 02:06:36 GMT
References: <1990Oct15.081235.6891@wubios.wustl.edu> <1990Oct16.180718.8173@amd.com>
Organization: Division of Biostatistics, WUMS, St. Louis, MO
Lines: 29

In article <1990Oct16.180718.8173@amd.com> indra@ashirvad.amd.com (Indra Singhal) writes:
>david@wubios.wustl.edu (David J. Camp) writes:
>
>>I would like to request a small change in
>>the sorting algorithm.  I ask that when using the non-reversed
>>mode, that the messages within a group appear in Mailbox Order, and 
>>reverse this when using Reverse Message Subject order.
>
>I agree with David. This would make Message Subject sorting very useful.

Actually, I think that this is an instance of a deficit in all of the sorting
orders - that if there is a tie in the key, the ordering of the tied messages
is haphazard.  I use Reverse time received and am continually annoyed when the
notebook is resorted that the order of existing items changes :-(

What I would like to suggest as a general approach would be to use notebook
order as a secondary key.  Use the same order as for the primary key - i.e.
either increasing or decreasing as the case for the primary key.

An alternative would be to use the order from the previous sort.  This would
mean, for example, that you could first sort on decreasing time received and
then increasing subject and get what you (perhaps) wanted.

-phil
-- 
     J. Philip Miller, Professor, Division of Biostatistics, Box 8067
	 Washington University Medical School, St. Louis MO 63110
	     phil@wubios.WUstl.edu - Internet  (314) 362-3617
uunet!wuarchive!wubios!phil - UUCP (314)362-2693(FAX)  C90562JM@WUVMD - bitnet