On Sun, 14 Apr 2013, A.L.E.C wrote:
Messages list widget is indeed very desktop-specific and changing it to other HTML element would be very hard. There's a lot of logic (selecting, dragging, threading, sorting, etc.) that depends on TABLE structure. Many actions depends on this and list.js code.
If you really want to do it. You could keep the table, but make it invisible (display:none) and bind to insertrow event to create your own list (and add rows to it). However, you'll still need to write a lot of javascript code to handle all actions on the list. You'll need at least to re-write the whole list.js code.
Is there any mileage or interest in implementing a minimal interface for smartphones which doesn't try to handle all actions on the list?
I've been looking at Horde/IMP over the last few days. Their smartphone interface appears to implement:
Compose new message (with simple integration with addressbook/LDAP, and the list of identities).
Select a mailbox
List messages in current mailbox
Search for messages in current mailbox
View message in currently selected mailbox
Reply to, Forward and Save the (single) currently viewed message
and that is about it. No drag and drop or manipulation involving multiple messages. No way to manipulate the users' addressbook or preferences.
This seems like a sensible compromise given the limitations of mobile devices. Apart from the addressbook and identity integration in (1) it could be an entirely separate application. Indeed I believe that is how it came about.
I apologise if this subject has been discussed to death in the past: I've only been on the list for a couple of months.