I have to say I agree with John C. Welch on the plugin issue. For one
thing, it's too easy to relegate a given feature to a hypothetical
plugin (that might be distributed by default, or not, or distributed
by default and not uninstallable, or not, let's decide at the last
minute), to defer having to decide whether it's a core 1.0 feature or
not.
If we go too far down this path, then Letters will be a mail client
that suits only the casual users (or maybe not even) in its stock
distribution, forcing the intended audience to carefully select the
plugins they need from what will likely be a vast, motley list, to
make it worth considering over Apple Mail. Not only would you have to
find whether a plugin exists that does what you want, but you could
have to choose between two plugins that provide said feature
differently. What a nightmare.
Then there's the AppleScript dictionary issue that Jesper pointed out.
Speaking of AppleScript, John has a very solid point. I am a
programmer. It means I can program, I even like it. It does not mean I
only want to use applications made for or only useable by programmers.
I don't want to have to program my way out of everything I do on a
computer. Otherwise I'd be using Linux or Stallman's OS on his all-
free-as-in-shut-up 16 MHz laptop with a 3" display, not a Mac. And non-
programmer power user coupled with everything that we can read under
Workflow in the vision document means good AppleScript support, not a
Lisp, Perl or HQ9+ API (or AppleScript support *and* a Lisp, Perl or
HQ9+ API, if you really want to scatter the development effort for
1.0). I don't like writing AppleScripts, but I love having them when
I'm done, and what I like even less is having to write a mix of shell
scripts, AppleScripts and whatnots to try and integrate three
applications toghether.
As for the 3-pane view, I'd rather put it in, even though I don't use
it, because we'll never reach an agreement. If there's one thing I
hate it's having to adapt myself to the computer or application
instead of making it adapt to me. Now I'll assume the role of someone
who's been using the three-pane view for a long, long time and is
considering switching mail clients. Someone please take the role of
the guy who's supposed to tell me "Look at Letters, we made it for
poser users. What? Where's the three pane view? There isn't one, it
was too complicated to implement reliably. I'm afraid you'll have to
adapt yourself to the three column view".
Yeah, I wouldn't want that role either. :-P
That's all for now, it's late in old Yurp.
Ö.
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