Xref: utzoo comp.mail.misc:834 comp.mail.headers:244 sci.research:337
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!cmcl2!husc6!linus!philabs!ttidca!sa
From: sa@ttidca.TTI.COM (Steve Alter)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.mail.headers,sci.research
Subject: Re: "data base" mail system idea
Message-ID: <1922@ttidca.TTI.COM>
Date: 12 Feb 88 03:10:53 GMT
References: <11120@shemp.UCLA.EDU>
Reply-To: sa@ttidca.tti.com (Steve B. Alter)
Organization: Citicorp/TTI, Santa Monica
Lines: 38

In article <11120@shemp.UCLA.EDU> wales@CS.UCLA.EDU (Rich Wales) writes:
} ...
} Many existing systems (such as Berkeley Mail and MH) work along a "fil-
} ing cabinet" model.  That is, the user selects a "folder" of messages
} and can then examine the contents of that folder.
} ...
} 
} The "filing cabinet" model, I feel, starts to break down when one deals
} with large amounts of mail.  The main problem is that there is usually
} no good way to locate a given piece of mail, unless the user can remem-
} ber which folder he filed it in.

Sorry to rain on your parade, Rich, but there is a widely available
user-agent mailer that provides at least a portion of the facilities
you describe.  Although this system does not automatically handle
addresses and dates (as far as I know) in its "message-perusal"
functions, it does handle user-defined keywords and each message can
be assigned more than one of them.  The user can then peruse all
messages that contain a selected keyword.  This capability replaces
and augments the concept of folders.  Furthermore, if you forget the
exact form/spelling of a keyword that you chose months ago, this
system provides auto-completion and choice-listings just like the
Tenex c-shell (tcsh).

The disadvantage of this specific mailer is that it is quite large and
won't fit on small machines such as PDP-11s.

I am refering to GNU Emacs and its "rmail" package.

In retrospect, it shouldn't be that difficult to augment the MH system
to support "cross-filing" between folders, and use hard-links so that
different message-numbers in different folders point to the same
message.  All it would really need is a clean specification for the
command-line syntax.  Hey RAND, are you listening?

-- Steve Alter
...!{csun,rdlvax,trwrb,psivax}!ttidca!alter  or  alter@tti.com
Citicorp/TTI, Santa Monica CA  (213) 452-9191 x2541