Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uupsi!sunic!sics.se!ifi.uio.no!nuug!ugle.unit.no!barsoom!barsoom!tih From: tih@barsoom.nhh.no (Tom Ivar Helbekkmo) Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm Subject: Re: Hey Syd, here's a couple of ideas! Message-ID: Date: 21 Jun 91 07:24:14 GMT References: <1991Jun20.044510.781@osh3.OSHA.GOV> Sender: news@barsoom.nhh.no (USENET News System) Organization: Norwegian School of Economics Lines: 39 While we're talking new ideas... This is not actually a suggestion for a new feature in elm, rather, I'd like to hear some comments on the following: Most mail UAs, including elm, use the concept of folders. I find it hard to utilize this properly. I tend to save incoming (and outgoing) mail in folders based on varying criteria. Some items go into folders named for the person I'm corresponding with, others by subject. Right now, there are 111 different folders in my Mail directory -- and it's getting more and more difficult to remember exactly where a certain piece of mail is. What I'd really love to see, is a UA that uses a free text (inverted index) database for storing mail items, and has a reasonably powerful command set for selecting messages. I'd like to be able to use selection criteria like "all messages either to or from person a or b", "all messages where the subject contains the word 'foo'", "the last 30 messages sent", "all messages with the word 'gargleblaster' in the text", "all messages sent by me last monday", and so on... (Of course, the syntax would be different from these examples, and much less verbose.) So, comments, anyone? And, to the elm developers: How major would such a change to the basic mail storage system be; would it mean a more or less total rewrite, or is elm modularized in such a way that it's possible to replace the storage and folder selection system with a different mechanism? Ah, and while I'm posting anyway: There is a simple change I'd like to see in elm. When viewing a mail item on screen, I'd really like to be able to change to a different folder without having to go back to the message list first. (The 'c' key is not used in that situation, so what I do now is something like "'c' [grumble] 'i' 'c' '=foldername' 'ret'". :-) -tih -- Tom Ivar Helbekkmo, NHH, Bergen, Norway. Telephone: +47-5-959205 Postmaster for domain nhh.no. Internet mail: tih@barsoom.nhh.no