From: ophof@SERVER.uwindsor.ca (Scott Ophof)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: List of enhancements
Date: 28 Dec 1992 03:29:35 -0600
Organization: CS Dept, University of Texas at Austin
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu


Having read the documentation on "elm", and in character with
the feeling that emanates from it (to give the user something
much better than other available MUAs), I'd like to offer some
suggestions and requests for improvements to "elm".

Friendlier and more "intelligent" display of ones folders:
Instead of that scrolling of the list, and of course discovering
that the folder one wanted has already gone off-screen before being
able to fully read it, why not present the display in screenfuls,
each of which can be selected SEPARATELY.  And when the last folder
is visible, then *PLEASE* NOT automatically "roll off the end"?
 - This could be done using the "<" and ">" keys to select which page
   one wants to skip to for display, and RETURN to quit the display.
 - And how about allowing one to use the TAB key to skip to each
   folder name in turn, with the SPACE key informing "elm" of the
   folder one wishes to change to?
 - And the cursor keys (and/or the "hjkl" keys) to assist in this
   positioning of the cursor in the right spot?

What about allowing invocation of "elm" from within itself?
It's strange that one cannot take a "side-look" at some item in
another folder than the one currently referenced without first
having to quit that folder, "change" to the other folder, wait for
its index to be built, find the item, invoke the pager, SPACE down
to what one is looking for, quit the item, "change" back to the
original folder, wait again for the (unnecessary) index re-build,
etc., etc...
And it's even more frustrating when having to do a side-check while
building an item to *send*!  :-(

Unix boasts being able to be used from almost any terminal
imaginable.  It's strange then that no application I've come across
up to now realizes that when a user wants to skip straight to (say)
the 4th page by hitting SPACE 4 times, one still needs to wait for
each of those pages to be laboriously built and displayed onscreen
(line by molasses-slow line at 2400 bps...) before going on to the
next.  Isn't there any way for a program to detect that it has been
requested to already display the next screen before it has ended
updating the current screen?
My question here is whether it's at all possible in Unix, and if so,
why it has never been implemented?  It seems so *obvious* to me...
Unix is a full-duplex system, so it *should* be possible.  And I
know from experience that it *is* possible and common on half-
duplex systems...

As to aliases, how about enhancing that facility to allow users to
include such things like which folder to store items in related to a
specific alias, phone numbers, surface addresses, user-definable
fieldnames and -values?  Especially if the facility were not
integral to "elm" anymore, but invocable from "elm" as a separate
utility, which then could also be used by other applications.
If this were implemented, then the very limited and not-really-so-
useful relevant parameters in ".elmrc" would at last become
obsolete.  :-)
And maybe a separate screen to display field-names and -values of an
alias entry, both for input and display?  And being able to cycle
through the entries forwards and backwards?

Another thing is the possibility of retaining the index of a folder
(as an on-disk file) as long as the relevant folder doesn't change.
Skipping the index-rebuild each time for folders containing many
items would save quite some wall-clock and CPU time (at the expense
of some disk space, of course).
In addition, an option like:
   saveindex=[yes|no|number]
(where "number" would be the minimum number of items at which to
start saving the index) would still give the user control over this
option.

A more friendly built-in browser when reading items would also be
appreciated.  One where paging commands are supported, both
forwards, but especially BACKwards!  And at least per screen and
half-screen, preferably in any increment the user wishes.
And NOT automatically "run off the end", *PLEASE*!
The built-in pager does NOT seem to support such commands, nor do
"more" (and "less")...
BTW, I do *not* see "vi" or "e-macs" (or rough equivs) as viable
alternatives.

Please, implement redraw for each and every separate kind of screen
displayable, not only for the index; some phone lines are really
*terrible*!


Regards.
$$/

Xref: sparky comp.mail.elm:3919 comp.sys.sun.admin:9881