[kmail2] [Bug 412363] New: Drafts folder doesn't work as intended

[David C. Bryant]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=412363

            Bug ID: 412363
           Summary: Drafts folder doesn't work as intended
           Product: kmail2
           Version: 5.9.3
          Platform: Debian stable
                OS: Linux
            Status: REPORTED
          Severity: normal
          Priority: NOR
         Component: composer
          Assignee: kdepim-bugs at kde.org
          Reporter: davidbryant at gvtc.com
  Target Milestone: ---

SUMMARY
The documentation (help:/kmail2/composer-window-menus.html) says, when
referring to the "drafts" folder, "Save the message in the drafts folder so you
can later edit and send it." ("Message" menu, "Save as Draft" option)

I can select this option, and it does save the message in "drafts". But there's
no convenient way to open this message for further editing. The draft message
is pretty useless if I'm not allowed to edit it. What happened to "...later
edit and send it"?

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Open a composer window ad type some text.
2. Select "Message" --> "Save as Draft".
3. Navigate to Drafts folder, select the new message, try to edit it.

OBSERVED RESULT
This used to work, through (I believe) version 5.6.x. I know it worked
correctly on openSUSE through release LEAP 42.3; I first encountered this bug
in openSUSE LEAP 15.0 (KMail 5.7.3). There was an option under the "Message"
menu that said "Edit Message". It was very handy. I could select any saved
message anywhere and say "Edit Message" ... Voila! it was in a message
composition window, ready to change / edit / send.

The "Edit Message" menu item has been supplanted by "Send Again", and that
option is always grayed out for messages that have been saved as drafts. I have
discovered a couple of workarounds. The most obvious one is to send an
incomplete message to myself, and then move the message from "sent-mail" to
"drafts". If I do that, the "Send Again" option is activated, and I can edit my
saved message. I can also move the message from "drafts" to "templates", and
then use the KMail "File --> New --> Message from Template" dialog to open and
edit the draft message. But if I have to do that, why make a distinction
between "drafts" and "templates" at all? I could just save the message as a
template in the first place.

EXPECTED RESULT
If I save a message as a draft, I should be able to open it for editing from
the drafts folder without a bunch of extraneous steps (send it to myself / move
it to "templates") thrown in.

Conceptually, there is a real difference between a "draft" and a "template". If
I'm writing a long message, or a sensitive one, and I want to save it for a day
or two, until I can give it the attention it deserves, it's a "draft" message.
If I have a form letter that will be used again and again, with just a few
variable details (who's the recipient, etc.), it's a template.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Windows: 
macOS: 
Linux/KDE Plasma: ✔
(available in About System)
KDE Plasma Version: 5.14.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.54.0
Qt Version: 5.11.3

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
In thinking about this, I'm struck by the possibility that the basic structure
of K-Mail is becoming anachronistic. The first real e-mail program I ever used
was Netscape Navigator 2.0 running under a Windows 3.1 OS (80386 chip - 1995).
That program, the predecessor of Firefox / Thunderbird, had six "folders" for
messages: inbox, outbox, sent, trash, drafts, & templates. Guess what? KMail
uses the same six names.

The names themselves are redolent of a paperwork culture. The physical inbox /
outbox once sat on most managers' desks, filled with incoming and outgoing
memoranda on paper. Old paperwork was archived in a filing cabinet, inside
actual manila folders. The trash had to be emptied by the janitor at the end of
the day. The steno pool existed mostly to type up and revise items that were
marked "draft", and "templates" aka "form letters" were a staple in every large
business enterprise.

All this is obvious enough. I wonder, though: do younger people really
appreciate the meanings these old names once had? An inbox still makes sense,
because it takes time to read a message. An outbox is increasingly
anachronistic: most of the time, the message is only there for a split-second.
After that it's gone into the ether, with a copy in the "sent-mail" folder.
Given the obsession with text messaging, etc., I suppose the same thing will
eventually happen to "drafts". We can't stop to re-read the things we've
written. We're in far too much of a hurry for that! Nobody cares about
spelling, or good grammar, or punctuation anyway. Boring.

Maybe that's why "drafts" don't work right in KMail now. The next generation of
programmers sees this feature as a superfluity, and ignores it.

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