Hi Peter, On 14/04/2005 07:32 PM +0200, you wrote:
When some of the other bugs have been ironed out of this beta series, I will start beta testing again.
This is my current position, though this position may be worsening as I get more acquainted, through Mulberry, with what a fully functional and implemented IMAP protocol can offer. TB! has some way to go.
When (if?) TB! grows better with IMAP, I want to move all my accounts to IMAP but I dare not at the moment. But for me TB! is more important than IMAP - for me Mulberry and Thunderbird are not an option due to missing functionalities: macros, RegExp, etc.
For me, my fundamental wish is that the protocol works reliably and robustly, in that it works well across different environments. It's more than a little frustrating using TB! at home while using another client elsewhere. You wish your clients to be equally capable in terms of protocol handling so that you can really spread your wings with it and not be in limbo doing the basics and hoping on and on and on and on that things will get better. What doesn't help that hope is that when comments are made about quirky or flaky implementation of a feature, we're told that there are limitations based on the POP3 base TB! is built on.
To work with a beta and tolerate the shortcomings, I have to see a bright future. I used to have faith that there was one, but now I don't. Though changes have been made, the overall progress has been very slow for the last several months since attempts to fix one problem brings on other problems/issues. There's this constant grappling with basic efficiency with mail retrieval/reading etc.
My basic problems:
A properly functioning outbox that will work as a draft folder. You can keep unfinished mail there without problems. A couple claiming they have no problems with the current situation doesn't help.
Labelling needs to be implemented. I can easily label messages as important etc. and expect to retain these labels across locations.
Performance despite having multiple connections support is still disappointingly poor. It's faster, but still not good enough. I found myself pruning folders down just to accommodate this. I shouldn't have to be doing this. The way to solve this is having the ability to retrieve only a set quantity of the most recent messages from each folder. With this ability, Mulberry is the fastest solution I've used with my connection at work. It works better even though it doesn't keep a cache between restarts. Another method of efficient bandwidth use is the downloading of only that much information as is needed per message. You select a message, and only the message body is downloaded. You select an attachment for viewing and only that attachment and no other attachments in the message is downloaded. I'm enjoying being able to selectively download one among several attachments within a single message without having to retrieve the rest of the attachments and with a high degree of reliability.
Filtering needs to be better so that I can easily filter from low bandwidth locations.
The sound support is flaky. After a long break from TB!, I'll open it to a cocophony of new message sounds and there are no new messages. I've already read the new messages from another client!
All I ask for is a debugged protocol with attention to efficiently, *reliably* and properly operating basic functions. I'm not prepared to work with quirky implementations that work to some extent or in some sort of a way thanks to the great efforts behind shoe-horning around the POP3 code base. I'm not being sarcastic about 'great efforts' either. I know that there are efforts being made. No doubt about that.
I'm just wondering if TB!'s IMAP will reach a level that would make want to stick with it for the long haul. I'm seeing a situation of one having to tolerate mediocre IMAP in exchange for the appeal/lure of the non-protocol specific features like templates etc.
I've been totally detoxed from the addiction of templates and MicroEd. That took a long time, but in the end, those are tools to augment the basic requirement which is the working protocol behind them. For me, they fade into insignificance without the working protocol. Though they make some things easier for me, I manage better with better IMAP than flaky IMAP and the TB! additions. I wasn't managing that well with ThunderBird, since it lacks too many things. However, Mulberry isn't bad at all with the other features and since getting accustomed to it, I'm more settled with e-mail than I've ever been in MANY months since I have Mulberry working really well at both locations.
I'm still reading the lists and see that there are many issues still amiss with the new beta that's not protocol specific. I need to see that pass before rejoining the fray. I also need to have a rekindle of faith in what TB! IMAP is planned to be like. Otherwise, I will continue to feel like I'm testing for just testing, rather than testing towards a final product that I'll end up really continuing to use in the end.
-- Allie Martin System specs: http://www.ac-martin.com/sysspecs.htm -=-=- Upgrade: take old bugs out, put new ones in.
________________________________________________________ Current beta is 3.0.9.15 Return | 'Using TBBETA' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html IMPORTANT: To register as a Beta tester, use this link first - http://www.ritlabs.com/en/partners/testers/
