Fwd: sequences

Got this from Patrick today.  Reposted here with his permission 
as food for thought.

--Hal

Date:  Thu, 24 Apr 2003 13:00:39 -0400
To:  Hal DeVore <[email protected]>
From:  Patrick Carr <[email protected]>
Subject:  Re: sequences 
In-Reply-To:  Your message of "Mon, 21 Apr 2003 12:45:25 CDT."              <[email protected]> 

On Monday, April 21, Hal DeVore wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> >>>>> On Thu, 17 Apr 2003, "Patrick" == Patrick Carr wrote:
> 
>   Patrick> I started using the sequences as per Hal's suggestion,
>   Patrick> because otherwise I was starting to think I should
>   Patrick> just go back to 2.5.
> 
> Would you mind elaborating on the second part of that sentence?
> 
> What I think you're saying is that there is something annoying 
> in 2.6.3 and nothing of value to you with the possible exception 
> of the sequences stuff.
> 
> If that's an accurate interpretation I think we'd like to know 
> what the annoyance(s) is(are).  Might be something fixable.  
> Might not.
> 

The big difference, and looking through the changelog, it's pretty much the
only difference, is the sequences window. I really liked the unseen window.
I took your message about the sequences you use, and implemented the
sequences reply, followup, and saved, since that's how I mentally group
message.

I'm not so keen on having a crazy carnival of colors in the display, so
hurdle one was finding a set of subdued colors for the groups. The display
I work on now is only 256 colors, so that wasn't so easy a feat.

Next is the functionality of the window. Except for the unseen sequence,
all sequences are added to and subtracted from by the user, so I don't see
a need to have that updated with every flist. Also, the only folders seen
in that window are the ones in the "Folders-unseen" mh_profile line. So for
the messages in my "saved" sequence which I've moved to folders which don't
receive new mail, I had to add those folders to the unseen list, which
subsequently adds to the time delay of an flist (which flickers the
sequences window). I am using exmh through an ssh tunnel.

If I were starting over with the sequences functionality, I might prefer
the old unseen window, and then the sequences menu as it is, except with
some function, akin to warp and narrow. Except I would have that function
display ALL messages, across folders (I don't know if that's possible) for
the sequence.

This could be layered into the current exmh if there were a sequences
preference item for "use old unseen window" and perhaps a third toggle on
the sequences menu items that if no messages are selected, it displays the
sequence. The menu would probably need to be colored for a key to the
display. I don't know if that's possible either.

The other possibility is to keep the sequences window as is (I don't mind
it), but have the flist just update unseen.

I can look into coding that up, as soon as I finish this stupid
dissertation, which should be by the summer sometime.

I hope this answers your question.

Pat