In the new Yahoo! mail I can select multiple checkboxes against my email subjects and press k to perform the action Mark as read. 

Is there a similar alternative in GMail?


Question: Seperation of drawing and logic in games
Answer: From my experience in development, there is no right or wrong way to do things, unless there is an accepted practice in the group you work with. I have met with opposition from developers who are averse to separating out behaviors, skins etc. And I am sure they will say the same about my reservation to writing a class that includes everything under the sun. 
Remember you have to not only write it, but be able to read your code tomorrow and at a future date, debug it and possibly build on it in the next iteration. You should choose a path that works for you (and team). Picking a route that others use (and is counter-intuitive to you) will slow you down.