On Jan 26, 2010, at 3:35 PM, LuKreme wrote: > 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.
While I'm not sure that complete abstraction from the server folder structure will work, it's good to keep in mind that, if we're serious about building a better email client, we're willing to look at and consider how applications in other domains handled their problems. iTunes is a brilliant example of something which maintains a nice, clean folder hierarchy (when you ask it to) but presents a radically simple, searchable interface without worrying the user about the underlying structure. There are issues for an email application, as "folders" are the default way in which people organize things and the standard way in which other mail clients will expect to interact with the mail store. I think "Here by dragons", but it could be "Here be awesome, fire-breathing bad-ass dragons." > Really? How about you switch to 'server view'? > > 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. Additionally, if you look at Gmail, you can see that the UI structure and folder structure don't have to align perfectly. Yes, yes, Gmail's IMAP is evil, but it works for the most part and translates "well enough". Not saying it's the direction to go, but again, not limiting design ideas to "folders! folders! folders!" might end up providing a more powerful UI. Could just as easily wind up being complete shit, but it's worth exploring. > 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 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?" > > 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." 100% agreed. So long as Letters reliable connects to the server, and performs it's actions in a consistent, predictable manner, whether or not it adds headaches to support personal is not something to worry about, at least not during design discussions. Killing any idea because "support will hate it" is a cop-out. _______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list List help: http://lists.ranchero.com/listinfo.cgi/email-init-ranchero.com
