by 1718627440 | 2025-07-13 11:26:56+00:00
> It's not a CLI

It is not about the invocation, search and filter bar differ in the same way as find and grep. Even if they are similar, they are still different enough to not benefit from unifying.

>> I don't care ...

I mean that as: I don't object to a different placement of the global search bar.

> My problem is what that search textbox is a clear import from the MS Outlook

I don't know the history and which program's search box predates the other. Note, that the search bar predates the current UI change, see below.

> not wasting the space for nothing in the window titlebar

As I have written earlier, I also don't like UI in the titlebar. But neither do I like yet another omnibar.

I think I should start again with describing how I perceive the functionality:

There is a global (across accounts, folders) search UI, which is a whole different "window"/tab, with different kinds of logical search parameters. The result view is displayed paged, with time, account and folder graphs, but can be converted to a standard message list view. This can be used when you have no clue and just focus completely on searching random content. The global search bar is just a "button" to open this UI and prefill the search box.

Suppose you have an already existent curated working set of messages. Then you want to select a few and operate on them. This is what the filter bar is for. You don't need to change your focus to a different UI element, it is just a way to pre-select your working set or temporarily restrict your view to focus on just some messages.

Note, how a lot of functionality is in adjusting the UI to support the state of mind of the user.

Enhancing the filter to work across folders is maybe a feature, I don't have a use for that yet. It doesn't makes sense with the current placement, because that indicates, that it is in the current folder frame. I wouldn't implement it like you, I would probably add a checkbox, but that's an implementation detail. But then getting rid of the search bar/functionality is just that, removing functionality.

The alternative way seams to be to merge the filter into the search bar, but that either amounts to the same or means adding a filter to the search to limit it to a specific folder, but this already exists.

> You sounds like I'm advocating to removal of both the search and the filter boxes.

That's because trying to merge them and removing the other, results in getting rid of one of two useful UI-flows. Currently it is also possible to first search and then use the filter on that. This also won't be possible when you merge them.

> Did you provided support to anyone by the phone?

Not yet for TB, but I give you that this might result in confusion. I don't think dumbing down the UI to solely improve tech support over the phone seams worthwhile.

> ctrl+shift+f - searching the mailbox.

That's yet another thing entirely. This invokes a server-side search as opposed to the two client side functionalities we are discussing now.

I uploaded a screenshot of how TB (115) currently looks for me: https://ibb.co/FbsKYF1H

Interestingly the height is less then any of your mockups. Maybe that is, because I don't have any scaling factor. My display is 1366x768, that results in a maximized window size of 1365x707. So this amounts to 32.5%, yes that is quite some space. I think in practice I tend to just mentally fade out anything above the menubar.

As I got curious, I reinstalled version 102. I remember feeling disappointed about the upgrade, because there was suddenly a lot of useless whitespace, but I didn't remember anything concrete. Here is how it looks: https://ibb.co/n8P2CjB4 That only occupies 25.5%, which seams better. I am surprised how you can now select more then one item in listviews for example in the folder pane and the subscription window. This is a huge deal, because selecting hundreds of folders individually to subscribe to them is just really annoying. I think I definitely like this UI more and don't know why there was this huge UI regression. It also seams to startup faster.

Note, that in both images I have the tab bar, which seams to be missing in all your mockups.

How are the numbers on your computer, as it seams even worse then on mine? Do you still have the same objections to the old UI?

> this is just another illogical placement what doesn't add functionality, yet wastes the space.

Do you have a proposal for placement without merging/removing functionality?