Yarn folders - request for enhancement

David Meade (dmeade@slip.net)
Sat, 06 Jul 1996 12:09:14 -0700

Well, in the "expire -r bug" thread, someone asked me why I didn't use
folders, and I gave one minor reason I didn't use them much. I also
thought about the other "minor" problem I had with folders and decided
to submit it as a minor enhancement request. And this time, I won't be
subtle.

user actions: I like to keep my outgoing e-mail and usenet posts forever.
At the begining of each year, I rename the folders with the year, this
releaves the clutter in my MAILED and POSTED folders.

perceived problem: At the article selection level in the folders, there
seem to be two major modes of title selection:
outbound - (MAILED and POSTED) displays Subject, To, Lines,(and Score)
inbound - (ALL others) displays Subject, From, Lines,(and Score)
Since my previous years POSTED and INBOX are now non-standard names,
they are displayed as inbound folders, instead of outbound folders.

perceived cause: In the global/config file, the folder names to save
the e-mail and usenet posts are set via the lines:
# keep copy of sent mail in this folder
sent-mail=mailed
# keep copy of posted articles in this folder
sent-news=posted
If the folder selected matches one of these two variables, outbound
title display is selected, otherwise use inbound title display is
selected.

suggested resolution: Use the name specified in sent-mail and sent-news
as a pattern match to determine title display mode. Create new option
in global/config to enable/disable feature. For my example below, I'll
call the option "folder-title-pattern-match=NO/YES". Default should be
NO, this forces the new behavior only if the user desires it.

Psuedo code: (it's in rexx, as my C coding skills are awful)

As it works now:
if folder_name = option_sent_mail |,
folder_name = option_sent_mail
then folder_title_mode = "outbound"
else folder_title_mode = "inbound"

Suggested code: (the | is an AND operation)
option_sent_mail_length = Length(option_sent_mail)
option_sent_news_length = Length(option_sent_news)
Select
When Compare(option_sent_mail,target_folder_name) = 0
then folder_title_mode = "outbound"
When Compare(option_sent_news,target_folder_name) = 0
then folder_title_mode = "inbound"
When folder-title-pattern-match = "YES" |,
Compare(Left(folder_name,option_sent_mail_length),option_sent_mail) = 0
then folder_title_mode = "outbound"
When folder-title-pattern-match = "YES" |,
Compare(Left(folder_name,option_sent_news_length),option_sent_news) = 0
then folder_title_mode = "outbound"
otherwise
folder_title_mode = "inbound"
end

This is my 2 cents worth.

Regards,

David

--
 David Meade                        Internet=dmeade@netcom.com
 Oakland, CA                                 dmeade@slip.net