On Wednesday, 01 September 1999 at 14:18, David Thorburn-Gundlach wrote:
> Hi, folks --
>
> As a user, I know what I'd like to see: some listing of folders and
> subfolders a la eudora, without mentioning any mailboxes thereunder
> (that's for the other display).
>
> I like the idea of having two different actions (view-directory and
> open-item) for the same "object" (a folder). Since there's no context
> (so far) for selecting a special character before a folder (like the
> '+' in an Explorer or Eudora tree listing), what about something like
> the new screen idea ("#3") that presents a screen something like
I've been thinking some more about this. I don't really want two keys to
operate on folders, one for selecting and one for descending. Most users
have folders that contain *either* subfolders *or* messages, but not
both. Making them two keys for folders that really only have one action
available to them is counterintuitive.
> +-------------------------------------------------------+
> | 1 Folder-0 |
> | 2 -> `-> SubFolder-1 |
> | 3 `-> VerySubFolder-3 |
> | 4 `-> SubFolder-2 |
> +-------------------------------------------------------+
> | 1 File-1 |
> | 2 File-2 |
> | 3 File-3 |
> | 4 File-4 |
> | 5 File-5 |
> | 6 File-6 |
> | |
> +-------------------------------------------------------+
I didn't realise until you drew it that a two-pane view isn't necessary.
In your bottom pane, what you have called File-? would actually be
messages (that's what folders contain). Let's skip this display until a
folder is selected. Instead let's just use the top pane, with the
tree-view. We can mark folders with a '+' if they have subfolders, and
use the standard Mutt expand/collapse-thread ops for viewing subfolders.
Whatever your cursor is on when you press enter is selected.
To save bandwidth, we'd defer getting the subfolder list until
'expand-thread' was run on a particular folder (imagine the problem of
folders containing several levels of nested folders - eg an IMAP
interface to usenet).
We could also mark folders that didn't contain messages, and beep when a
user attempts to select them. Hypothetical display:
+------------------------------------------------------+
| <Esc>v expand/collapse folders <Ret> select folder |
+------------------------------------------------------+
| 1 Folder1 |
| 2 Folder2 |
| 3 + Folder3 |
| 4 * - Folder4 |
| 5 + +->Folder4.1 |
| 6 * - `->Folder4.2 |
| 7 | `->Folder4.2.1 |
| 8 `->Folder4.3 |
+------------------------------------------------------+
| * not selectable + contains subfolders - expanded |
+------------------------------------------------------+
I like this idea the best so far. What do you think?
> How much overhead would it be over dialup? I dunno, but would test it
> out. How much would it take to write it? I also dunno, but probably
> not much for the great Mutt Programming Group :-)
I don't know either. It requires some investigation. This is definitely
a lot more to write than the current code. Seems nice though.
--
Brendan Cully <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | OLD SKOOL ROOLZ
"I hope I don't win | .-_|\
The rules say to bring a friend | / \
I don't have any" | Perth ->*.--._/
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