Does arrow navigation work with IMAP folders?

[bread...@gmail.com]

I recently converted from local mailboxes to IMAP folders, both on my
linux account (Pine 4.44) and with PC-Pine (4.64). After spending a
day convinced that any email moved to another folder from the inbox was
going into the bit bucket, I finally realized that if I pressed Enter
when navigating my new IMAP folders I got a list of emails, but if I
used the right arrow I got an empty directory. Why does arrow
navigation work with local folders, but not with IMAP?

[Mark Crispin]

Your server has "dual-use" mailboxes, in which a name is both a mailbox
(containing messages) and a directory (containing other names). The local
mailboxes are generally "single-use"; that is, a mailbox or a directory
but not both.

The problem is you need to have two different "open" methods for a
"dual-use" name; one to "open as mailbox", one to "open as directory". As
you discovered, right arrow "opens as directory" for a "dual-use" mailbox.
In some GUI-based mail programs, it's a matter of clicking the name vs.
clicking a triangular-shaped widget to the left of the name.

Some people think that "dual-use" mailboxes are a feature and the only
valid way to store mail. I disagree, as you probably do...

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.

[NM Public]

Sur 2006-04-03, bread...@gmail.com skribis:

This is one of Pine's (many) weird UI choices. I discuss this on
my Power Pine page in this section:

<http://www.ii.com/internet/messaging/pine/pc/#collectionTips>

Here's an excerpt...

--- begin excerpt ---

If you access a server that allows a mailbox and a directory to
have the same name, for example a Courier or Cyrus IMAP server,
you might want to set these two features:

[X] quell-empty-directories
[X] separate-folder-and-directory-entries

If you set quell-empty-directories, be aware that a directory
will disappear from the Pine FOLDER LIST when you delete the last
folder that it contains.

--- end excerpt ---

Hope this helps,
Nancy

PS - I'm happy to see another IMAP convert!

--
Nancy McGough ~ <http://www.ii.com> ~ <http://deflexion.com>

[bread...@gmail.com]

Thanks, that works very nicely. I've been using pine for 8 years by
ssh'ing to the linux server and keeping my local mailboxes there. But
corporate decisions decomissioned that server and set up an IMAP
microsoft exchange server (not my choice!). But pine still works with
it just fine. IT wants me to use Outlook, but there's no way I'll use
that overblown buggy software.

[NM Public]

Sur 2006-04-03, NM Public skribis:

> Sur 2006-04-03, bread...@gmail.com skribis:
>> I recently converted from local mailboxes to IMAP folders,
>> both on my linux account (Pine 4.44) and with PC-Pine (4.64).
>> After spending a day convinced that any email moved to another
>> folder from the inbox was going into the bit bucket, I finally
>> realized that if I pressed Enter when navigating my new IMAP
>> folders I got a list of emails, but if I used the right arrow
>> I got an empty directory. Why does arrow navigation work with
>> local folders, but not with IMAP?
>
> This is one of Pine's (many) weird UI choices. I discuss this
> on my Power Pine page in this section:
>
> <http://www.ii.com/internet/messaging/pine/pc/#collectionTips>

I've been thinking about this user-interface problem and here are
some ideas that might make it more clear to users what's going
on...

1] If there is a dual use name like this:

archive[/]

it would be really useful if 'archive' and '/' were separate
selectable items. That should make it clear that the string
'archive[/]' represents 2 different entities.

2] In the current Pine, when a dual-use name is selected, the
first page of the keymenu includes this:

< Clctn List
> View Dir

and the 2nd page of the keymenu (which you need to type
'O' to see) includes this:

V [View Fldr]
G GoTo Fldr

For people who actually look at the keymenu (*), it might be very
helpful to have the *first* page of the keymenu include this:

V [View Fldr]
> View Dir

Just some ideas!

Thanks,
Nancy

(*) I know that only a small percentage of people look at the
keymenu in this situation!

[Eduardo Chappa]

and a third suggestion.

When any version of Pine is run for the first time, Pine shows a message
saying (paraphrasing) "Selectable Item, Press return to view". It would be
good that this message changed to something like "Dual folder, Press
Return to open folder, and right arrow to open directory", or "see menu
for opening options", as Nancy pointed out.

What I do not like about your first suggestion is that it would make it
harder to navigate the folder list.

--
Eduardo
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