🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <11120@shemp.UCLA.EDU> wales@CS.UCLA.EDU (Rich Wales) writes:
} ...
} Many existing systems (such as Berkeley Mail and MH) work along a "fil-
} ing cabinet" model.  That is, the user selects a "folder" of messages
} and can then examine the contents of that folder.
} ...
} 
} The "filing cabinet" model, I feel, starts to break down when one deals
} with large amounts of mail.  The main problem is that there is usually
} no good way to locate a given piece of mail, unless the user can remem-
} ber which folder he filed it in.

Sorry to rain on your parade, Rich, but there is a widely available
user-agent mailer that provides at least a portion of the facilities
you describe.  Although this system does not automatically handle
addresses and dates (as far as I know) in its "message-perusal"
functions, it does handle user-defined keywords and each message can
be assigned more than one of them.  The user can then peruse all
messages that contain a selected keyword.  This capability replaces
and augments the concept of folders.  Furthermore, if you forget the
exact form/spelling of a keyword that you chose months ago, this
system provides auto-completion and choice-listings just like the
Tenex c-shell (tcsh).

The disadvantage of this specific mailer is that it is quite large and
won't fit on small machines such as PDP-11s.

I am refering to GNU Emacs and its "rmail" package.

In retrospect, it shouldn't be that difficult to augment the MH system
to support "cross-filing" between folders, and use hard-links so that
different message-numbers in different folders point to the same
message.  All it would really need is a clean specification for the
command-line syntax.  Hey RAND, are you listening?

-- Steve Alter
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