Hello Allie and other TBTECHS,
On Friday, February 09, 2001 at 18:05:50 GMT -0500 A . Curtis Martin wrote on "!
1.49: Message Column Lists moves to the right, message threading":
ACM> If you read newsgroups, you'll likely get involved in some mighty long
ACM> threads since most newsgroups are not moderated and threads can go on for
ACM> weeks or even months. The presupposition made in the Agent design, in the
ACM> context of news-reading, is indeed a correct one. Agent has been around for
ACM> a long time and there has been a lot of work put in it's usability in the
ACM> context of news-reading.
I'm not sure I follow you. What do you mean by saying that the presupposition
made in Agent is a correct one? Do you mean that Agent is correct in not letting
follow-up levels exceed a limit of 15? I have threads in my news-archive well
beyond that limit, and I sure you have too - so I'm pretty lost here.
JL>> An implementation of the Agent-model without the "Maximum
JL>> Follow-Up Level"-part would only save the space resulting from not
JL>> using a "To"-column.
ACM> Indeed. Personally, I like the maximum level option though making it
ACM> optional is ideal.
1) I'm not quite sure what went wrong here :-) What I meant was: such an
implementation would only save the space saved by not using a *"From"*-column!
But Agent does *not* allow the From- ("Author"-) column to go! "Lonly" messages
and messages at the top of a thread need - and have - a "From"-column in Agent.
2) This discussion has led me to check my TB-archives and I've only got *one*
thread exceeding reaching the 15-level limit. But I would still like to be able
to follow any thread to it's end in TB.
JL>> Without the limitation on the maximum follow-up level, columns would again
JL>> be moving when the thread were expanding across the width of the
JL>> subject-column.
ACM> Well, we're proposing that the dynamic expansion of the thread column
ACM> be stopped.
I know that :-) But it seems to me, that you haven't yet come up with a
convincing solution as to *how* this is to be done.
JL>> Unless, of course, the width of the subject-column was fixed and
JL>> you had to move it to follow the expanded thread - but then we
JL>> would be back where it all began...
ACM> No we wouldn't. I dislike intensely when the columns disappear because
ACM> the thread column thickens. I effectively have no control over the
ACM> thread column size.
If I understood Mark Knipfer correctly, what he didn't like about this was
having to scroll back and forth in order to view the columns. But having to
adjust the width of the threaded column every time the thread is gets to large
to be seen in the width assigned to a fixed column seems to be even more
cumbersome. As it is, this would have to be done by mouse, whereas you can
scroll back and forth to your hearts content with the arrow-keys.
On the basis on my very limited knowledge of these matters, I'd say that one
attractive solution would be to make the dynamic expansion-function relative to
the width of the column, so to speak. As it is, the column starts to move no
matter how wide you have set the threaded-column *if the limit hasn't already
been pushed by another expanded thread*. This means that there is some kind of
element controlling at what level at thread will start to expand the threaded
column. Surely, it must be possible to relate this element to the manually
adjusted width of that column. This would mean, that the wider the column was
set, the more levels could be shown before the column would expand. If you like
a limit of 15 levels, you would set the width of your thread-column to cope with
a maximum of 15 levels before beginning to expand.
To refine this option it could be optional what was to happen when the limit was
reached: you could either choose to adjust the width - and thus: the level-limit
- or choose to have TB expand without asking (as it does now).
Your thoughts, please :-)
--
Best regards,
Jannik Lindquist
The Bat! 1.49
Windows 98 4 10 2222 A
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