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Re: UI stuff (was Re: How to display format=flowed?)



On Wed, Oct 12, 2005 at 10:20:07PM +0200, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> On 2005-10-12 14:13:40 -0400, Derek Martin wrote:
> > I suppose this point (the format=flowed issue) is one such way, though
> > it is a relatively minor problem.  The biggest drawback to Mutt's UI,
> > IMO, is the inability to continue to see the message index while
> > composing a message.
> 
> One can continue to see it if the editor uses an external window.
> But one can't do anything in it. 

Right, but that's the problem...  It's not terribly useful to see it
if you can't do anything with it. ;-)  Plus, don't forget that many
users (like me) use mutt in large part because it's excellent for
reading mail remotely over slow, character-only ssh session.  Using an
external editor would usually require forwarding an X connection,
which I find annoyingly slow even over broadband connections...

Of course, there's gnuclient, which I believe can handle remote
sessions; but I prefer vim.

> Worse, if one types characters in Mutt's window, they are taken into
> account once the editor is closed (isn't this a bug?).

Well, given all the buzz over what constitutes a bug on the list
lately, I wouldn't say that it's a bug. :)  But I would agree that it
is probably not desireable behavior... 

> > I guess I think that mutt ought to have the ability to run in two
> > or three different windows simultaneously (folder view, index
> > view, message view).
> 
> It does almost that with pager index lines (one window, but two panes).

True, but I still can't see what folders have new messages (something
that mutt must devote its own screen for), and the index disappears if
I compose a message.

> BTW, would it need much change to make them appear in different windows?

I guess it depends what you mean.  You already can run multiple copies
of mutt in different windows, so you can more-or-less get what I'm
talking about by running 3 copies of mutt in 3 different windows.  But
this is yucky; it lacks any coordination between the 3 windows.
Getting all 3 to talk to each other to stay current (for every case)
would be some work, I think.

> > Each of these views could independently be enabled or disabled,
> > allowing people to continue to use Mutt just as it is now. This sort
> > of UI would allow a user to use an xterm of say 100 columns, using
> > all of those 100 columns for the index, while splitting the bottom
> > into 2 panes where the message is displayed in 80 columns, and the
> > folders and message counts are displayed in the remaining 20
> > characters (all of this configurable, of course).
> 
> Pager index columns. :)

But again, this doesn't let me continue to view message indexes while
I compose a message with vim (not xvim or gvim).  I can't see that new
messages have arrived in any of my folders, unless I run a separate
copy of mutt for that purpose.  This is, I think, mutt's biggest
detraction.  Don't get me wrong -- I still think Mutt is the best
mailer around, even with that -- but I think that this is a very
serious flaw in Mutt's UI design (shared by all the other text-based
mailers, AFAIK).  If mutt could run the editor in a sub-window, and
still keep the other panes active so that you could see new messages
arriving, that would truly be something.  I haven't done any work with
this kind of thing, so I can't say how much work would be involved.
I believe that mutt would need to have its own terminal emulator
built in, something like what screen does.

-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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