From: mathias@solomon.technet.sg (Mathias Koerber)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: linking messages in folders?
Date: 7 Jan 93 05:24:29 GMT
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]

Remember my compress folders suggestion/request? Here is another one that
might or might not be a good idea. In any case it will not work with
normal folder (=mail) files. For this (and the compress folders one)
elm might need to add an idea of its own folder files, which are no
longer compatible with unix-mail. Here is what I would find useful:

I always store mail in correspondance folders according to sender/recipient.
Elm is very good at this. But sometimes I *also* want to store the same mail
according to topic. Let's say person X sends me a mail about a topic I
asked about in news. Now I have the choice of storing this according
to topic (ie. create a folder for all replies on this topic), or according
to person. 

If I store it by person, and then want to write to all or some of the
users I had correspondance about a certain topic, I have to search
thru all personal files to find who said what and when.

If I store it by topic, and I want to refer to a mail stored thus, I
have to remember in which topic-folder it is. This gets even worse
if a mail contains references to several topics *and* personal
mail. Naturally I could store the mail in two or more folders, but
that takes just too much diskspace.

What I's like to have is a way to "link" a mail, just like a unix
link. Let's say I store the mail in the personal folder, but
store links to it in all the topics folders. 

Elm might do this by using the message-id field and the folder-name. Or
keep a central file (compressed !), and use only links (references)
to this in folders.

I would open a folder containing just the references into the central
repository, and elm would look in the central file for the text of
the message. If I reply to something, the answer should be stored in the
all the folders the message replied to is stored. This obviously needs some
cross-referencing between the repository and the folders.

Another idea: Maybe elm should only use a central file plus personal folders.
In addition one should be able to define "topic folders", which one can
open and close. If a topic folder is open, it is used to store messages
in addition to the personal folder and all other topic-folders currently
open. That means that a sent mail gets saved in
	- the personal folder of the recipient (From:)
	- all open topic folders

And when I save a received mail, the offered filename might default to
<personal,topics>, which means the sender's personal folder and
all open topic folders. Then later I can open a topic folder, and
work with all messages stored in there.

This is just off the top off my head, and not really thought through.
Moreover, I have not looked at elm-sources, nor do I intend writing this
for my personal use here (no time at the moment, no urgency, not enough
experience). I just thought that it would be nice, and might give the
people working on elm some additional ideas to implement.

Thx for listening :-)
Mathias

--
Mathias Koerber	                    | Tel: +65 / 7780066 ext 29
SW International Systems Pte Ltd    | Fax: +65 / 7779401
14 Science Park Drive #04-01        |
The Maxwell, Singapore Science Park | email: mathias@solomon.technet.sg
Singapore 0511                      |        swispl@solomon.technet.sg
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Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm