Maildirs vs. bookmarks

[jman]

Hello,

I have configured both custom maildirs and bookmarks shortcuts. By reading the documentation, my
understanding is that they are basically the same thing (aggregated search results) with maildirs
not being able to get filtered.

What's the reason of having both when bookmarks seems to serve the purpose?

Thanks

[Tassilo Horn]

"'jman' via mu-discuss" <mu-di...@googlegroups.com> writes:

Hi!

FWIW, I sort my mail into different folders on the server side using
SIEVE. Those are synced into corresponding local maildirs using mbsync.
I like having separate folders for different topics (e.g., one folder
per mailinglist I'm subscribed to), just because I also use other mail
clients (like on my phone) which don't have such a good search support
as mu4e has.

With respect to maildir shortcuts and bookmarks: they are both
essentially just searches. Maildir shortcuts search with queries like
"maildir:foo" whereas bookmarks search for whatever you like (where the
default bookmarks have no maildir restriction, i.e., they search in all
maildirs).

So if you "need" maildir shortcuts at all is a personal preference. I
sometimes open a maildir for some specific mailinglist. That doesn't
happen very often, so I could just use a search for
maildir:/AccountX/mailinglists/emacs-devel which is not too much slower
to type given that there's completion support. OTHO, I don't have many
bookmarks so there's plenty of space in the main view. If I hadn't the
maildir shortcuts, it would just be empty space.

Bye,
Tassilo

[Joost Kremers]

The way I see it, it's mainly a conceptual thing. Most people are used to
mailboxes and think about their email in those terms. So one might say
maildirs are just a way to make the UI more familiar.

Personally, I sort my mail in different folders (or rather, I have Fastmail
do it for me), which is conceptually for me a thematic thing: each maildir
stores email related to a specific topic. (Usually a mailing list, but not
always). I also use bookmarks, but they are not thematic. They mostly
relate to email status: unread, recent, flagged, that sort of thing.

On a practical note, I'm happy there are both maildir shortcuts and
bookmarks, because I have quite a few of both and there wouldn't be enough
letters in the alphabet for them...[1]

Joost




Footnotes:
[1] Well, not enough mnemonic ones, anyway. I once asked Dirk if he'd
consider making it possible to have multi-letter bookmarks or maildir
shortcuts, but he wasn't enthusiastic about the idea.

--
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments