Xref: utzoo comp.mail.misc:830 comp.mail.headers:236 sci.research:332 Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!oberon!skat.usc.edu!blarson From: blarson@skat.usc.edu (Bob Larson) Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.mail.headers,sci.research Subject: Re: "data base" mail system idea Message-ID: <6790@oberon.USC.EDU> Date: 6 Feb 88 15:07:21 GMT References: <11120@shemp.UCLA.EDU> Sender: news@oberon.USC.EDU Reply-To: blarson@skat.usc.edu (Bob Larson) Organization: USC AIS, Los Angeles Lines: 31 In article <11120@shemp.UCLA.EDU> wales@CS.UCLA.EDU (Rich Wales) writes: >The idea I had was to take all of one's incoming mail and put it into a >information retrieval system. Messages could then be searched for by >any of a number of criteria (dates, addresses, subject, user-assigned >keywords, etc.). The kinds of searches available would be limited only >by the resources available to do the indexing and the searching. Tops-20 Mm allows message selection by all of the above mentioned things plus some others. (message body contents, unseen, flagged, etc.) It also supports the multiple folder model. It does not use a general purpouse database. There are at least two copies of Mm for unix, the one I have used has major problems, I consider it "almost usable". I also have a Mm subset for primos. >Is anyone out there on the net aware of a mail system that does the >kinds of things I am suggesting here? If in fact it hasn't been done, >is there some major "show-stopper" problem that has kept it from being >done? No major show stopper that I know of. Implamentation problems such as limited mailbox size do exist. (Startup is also slower on large mailboxes.) Most of the problems with keywords have been rediscovered by mm users, although since the same person assigns and uses the keywords they are less than a general keyword system. -- Bob Larson Arpa: Blarson@Ecla.Usc.Edu blarson@skat.usc.edu Uucp: {sdcrdcf,cit-vax}!oberon!skat!blarson Prime mailing list: info-prime-request%fns1@ecla.usc.edu oberon!fns1!info-prime-request