MBOX-Line: From mrc+uw at Panda.COM  Tue Dec 29 14:36:37 2009
To: imap-protocol@u.washington.edu
From: Mark Crispin <mrc+uw@Panda.COM>
Date: Fri Jun  8 12:34:43 2018
Subject: [Imap-protocol] Childless noselect mailboxes
In-Reply-To: <D00B7DFA-492B-4DBE-87C7-A5F294BE8910@umn.edu>
References: <1262106049.26478.745.camel@timo-desktop>
	<alpine.OSX.2.00.0912290938230.18442@hsinghsing.panda.com>
	<1262111858.26478.842.camel@timo-desktop>
	<alpine.OSX.2.00.0912291042070.18442@hsinghsing.panda.com>
	<1262114250.26478.864.camel@timo-desktop>
	<alpine.OSX.2.00.0912291237311.18442@hsinghsing.panda.com>
	<D00B7DFA-492B-4DBE-87C7-A5F294BE8910@umn.edu>
Message-ID: <alpine.OSX.2.00.0912291425140.18442@hsinghsing.panda.com>

On Tue, 29 Dec 2009, Brian Hayden wrote:
> Has anyone studied this from a user perspective? I suspect that you'd have to 
> come up with an interaction method that is both new and intuitive (something 
> that is quite the rare gem) to have the concept have any meaning to the user 
> in a client interface -- \NoSelect seems quite foreign to everything else 
> they encounter on a computer system (or in any other interface, for that 
> matter).

Oh?

The UNIX and Windows shells, with mkdir and rmdir are "quite foreign"?

The Windows Explorer and the Mac OS X Finder are "quite foreign"?

The FTP and SSH protocols are "quite foreign"?

In EVERY other environment besides IMAP, you must create a directory 
before you can put something into it.  In EVERY other environment besides 
IMAP, directories don't vanish when you delete their children.

The ONLY reason why IMAP hides directories under this cloak of "\NoSelect 
names" was to pacify the CMU people who wanted to make everything look 
like NetNews.  Giving in was a HUGE mistake which I have regretted 
enormously ever since.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.

