From: Austin Ziegler Date: 2005-04-20T12:54:06+09:00 Subject: Re: Newbie Ruby and C question On 4/19/05, Jonas Hartmann wrote: > Austin Ziegler wrote: > Thunderbird.app is not a modern mailer? > Give me a hint what to use on Mac os X then. In many ways, no, it isn't. (Don't get me started on how long it took for them to implement a single tree view. Really don't get me started on the BS reasons that they gave for not implementing it.) No, Thunderbird isn't exactly a modern mailer. It still holds to solid early to mid-90s UI design and (for the most part) features. It often forces a particular user interface because that's the way the spec reads -- even if the spec is there for the benefit of the network computer and not the ultimate user. As I said in a different post, what is shown and what is stored may be different things entirely. The TB team has made a step in the right direction with virtual folders (something that appeared much earlier in Outlook), but just because References and In-Reply-To are set doesn't mean that the intent of the sender is to keep the message in the thread. There are relatively clear heuristics (that I've also outlined) that would allow the MUA to display these items "smarter". TB is a step ... sideways ... in UI design for mail clients, if not a step backwards. I don't use TB because it's particularly good, but because it's more usable than anything else on Windows. TB is the worst email client out there ... except for all the others. Most of my email these days, by the way, is done through GMail. It has some other problems with threading/grouping, and neither GMail nor Thunderbird allow for the one thing that would help fix the problem easily: reparenting. But GMail gets the thread ("conversation") right more often than not. Believe it or not. -austin -- Austin Ziegler * halostatue@gmail.com * Alternate: austin@halostatue.ca