[kmail2] [Bug 458283] New: Invent a new way of displaying mail threads (LONG)

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https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=458283

            Bug ID: 458283
           Summary: Invent a new way of displaying mail threads (LONG)
           Product: kmail2
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Debian testing
                OS: Linux
            Status: REPORTED
          Severity: wishlist
          Priority: NOR
         Component: message list
          Assignee: kdepim-bugs at kde.org
          Reporter: tnemeth at free.fr
  Target Milestone: ---

INTRO :)

    Hi dear KMail developers !

    I've been using KMail for ages (circa ~KDE2) and apart from the (long, very
long) installment
    of Akonadi (and its long list of failures -- at least on kubuntu), I've
been quite pleased with it.

   But I think e-mail clients shall evolve in order to make e-mail reading more
pleasant, easy.
   There are at least 3 points that, IMHO, should be handled:
    - helping user with automatic mails filtering so that the mailbox doesn't
get too much stuffed
       with useless mails
    - e-mail display / rendering
    - messages listing... That is the point of my wish today :)

    When reading mails, looking for them in the mailbox, or in the trash (as I
put read mails directly
    into the trash to be auto-destructed when time passes) I find it hard to
pinpoint a message I want.
    searching is not quite easy since I don't always remember exact words that
were in the mail but
    mainly the idea behind it. I can remember the author but... There are often
too much mails from
    the author. The date is also important but here too I can only say "it was
about 2 weeks ago"... And
    it happens I'm often wrong there too :) Maybe it's due to my age ;) ?

    I'm a developer. I've been a developer for 4 decades now (yes I'm getting
quite old). As such I
    use the most powerful tool that exists for a developer (and, still IMHO,
for everyone!) : git.


DESCRIPTION

    The idea I had was : what if mail threads were presented as a git graph
log, just like in GitLab. An
    other way of presenting them could be like what's done in wireshark when
following a TCP
    conversation.
    In both cases, a thin vertical bar with dots linking the messages of a same
discussion.  Another
    option would be to highlight messages with a mini-map (like in Kate/KWrite)
for indicators of
    messages out of the current view.

    Sent mail could also be displayed here, just like it was in newsgroups
where you could see your
    own messages among those of the discussion.

    Actually, to have that last "feature" in kmail, I put all my mails in the
trash (received -- when treated --
    and sent) and then display the messages by discussion. But it has 2
drawbacks:
    01. it doesn't relfect the time that has passed between messages as other
messages are pushed out
         of the conversation (that is normal -- and desired -- in this
presentation mode)
    10. I have to put all the messages of a discussion in a single folder.

   Of course there are mails not part of a discussion but I don't see them as a
problem. They would be
   alone.

    I've tried several combinations of messages list display with "Sort" and
"Grouping" using date/time
    and threads. But none can render what I envision...


Thanks for reading that :) I hope that it could be implemented...

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