I don't like the user interface for the [a]lias command. When I add an alias, it prompts me through a series of one-line prompts in the status bar. If I make a mistake, I have to press Ctrl+G and start the whole series of prompts over. And, it asks me at the end where I want to save the alias (I'd rather it not ask me, and always save to .mail_aliases). Furthermore, I run multiple copies of mutt in screen, and if I add an alias in one mutt, it doesn't show up in the other mutts unless I re-source .mail_aliases.
Pine has a nicer interface. When I press "a" in Pine, it opens a full screen where I can fill out a form (and move between the fields I'm filling out), and then when I save it it doesn't ask me what file to save it to; it just saves it to the default aliases file. Anyway: 1. At least, can I configure mutt to not ask what file to save the alias to? 2. I'm thinking that some disk-based database (e.g. GDBM) would be more appropriate for aliases, rather than a text file that is sourced when mutt starts. This would fix the problem of aliases in one mutt not showing up in other mutts. (Also, if someone has a lot of aliases GDBM would be more efficient. I don't think anyone would have hundreds of aliases, though...) Thoughts?
