On 1/26/10 4:35 PM, "LuKreme" <[email protected]> wrote: >> How? You have files in directories. Or if you want to be Entourage, files in >> a database. > > Just because the files are in directories does not mean you have to show them > that way. Look at iTunes, where is the directory structure?> It's completely > hidden. > > You could certainly have your Letters UI show you your mail however you want, > and STILL do the right thing on the server.
However, I never talk to the iTunes server the way I talk to an email server. I only, and for the forseeable future, WILL only use a single client to talk to iTunes...itunes. I never have to care how my itunes storage will look on my iPhone, or via webmail, or some other iTunes client that isn't iTunes. I DO have to care about such things with email. Having the same storage metaphor across devices is important, unless your only interface is a search window. > >> And how do you then deal with server interaction problems? What do you tell >> the server administrator, who needs to know what you're seeing? > > Really? How about you switch to 'server view'? So now we're swapping completely different UI views? Not just n-pane, but radically different views. Is Gmail's pain here not enough? > > I read 99% of my mail out of my Smart Mailbox (named 'U'). This mailbox is how > I interact with my IMAP store almost all the time, but it has no relationship > *at all* to the structure of the mail folders on the IMAP server. However, if you have that as your ONLY folder, barring some mode switch, and then go on to a different device that doesn't use that folder, you don't have that view any more. In your case, you wish to live with that pain, and that's fine. For you. But, as someone pointed out, "Power User" and "Expert on all things email" are not the same thing. For many values of "Power User" this is going to be quite problematic. > >> Until you're having a problem accessing a server folder, and you're talking >> to support. Then everyone speaking the same language is important. > > If we're going to cripple Letters to make Nameless ISP Support easier, then we > might as well design a POP3 client and be done with it. If you regard supporting IMAP servers with a UI that uses terminology people who have never seen Letters as crippling, then I suppose so. > > If support can't deal with Letters they are free to say "What happens when you > try this in ThunderBird/Mail.app/Mulberry/Webmail/WhateverClient We Support?" "Hmm...it appears I get better support when I use a client that uses 'normal' terminology and metaphors. Maybe I should just stop use Letters. It seems to be rather at odds with How People Talk About Email. Or as a great quote in a Sociology 101 class went: "If I live in germany, I always have the option of ignoring all things German, and doing things as I did in France. However, I would soon have severe problems with employment, which would quickly lead to ever greater problems with things like food, clothing, and shelter. If I wish to live in Germany, even if the people there speak multiple languages, at the end of the day, it is worth my while to do things in the German fashion." Email has certain terms and concepts, and descriptions for those concepts. It is no small coincidence that when Gmail decided to abandon most of those, they did so at the *server level first*, and made sure that initially, you had no choice whatsoever with the client. When you are writing a generic client, you do not wield that level of control, and must make allowances for Other People, even though it is inconvenient to your Grand Vision > > In fact, having taking lots of support calls, webmail is my first line of > defense. "Is the message there in webmail? Great, our system is working. If > Entourage is not seeing it, you will need to contact Microsoft." You have the luxury of telling users to funk off if you don't like their client. Many administrators don't, either due to actual rules, or a belief that telling people to funk off is not the best way to go about things. If Letters does not wish to be perma-relegated to the "Funk Off" file, it needs to, by default, allow users to communicate in the common terms of email. -- John C. Welch Writer/Analyst Bynkii.com Mac and other opinions [email protected] _______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list List help: http://lists.ranchero.com/listinfo.cgi/email-init-ranchero.com
