Re: [Evolution] Is there a command for "undo" in Evo?

["Patrick O'Callaghan" <poc usb ve>]

On Mon, 2007-10-22 at 09:03 -0400, Dinbandhu wrote: 
> On Sun, 2007-10-21 at 17:18 -0400, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> > On Sun, 2007-10-21 at 17:06 -0400, Dinbandhu wrote:
> > > On Sun, 2007-10-21 at 12:08 -0400, Matthew Barnes wrote:
> > > > On Sun, 2007-10-21 at 10:23 -0400, Dinbandhu wrote:
> > > > > If for example you transfer a mail to a particular folder--or if you
> > > > > transfer 100 mails to a particular folder-- and then realize you made a
> > > > > mistake, then is there a command to "undo" the transfer so that the
> > > > > mails come back to where you had them?  
>  
> [...]
>
> > IMHO a general undo would be fairly difficult to implement, however the
> > more restricted case of "undelete" would still be immensely useful and
> > doesn't sound hard to do. I know you can hunt for the deleted message
> > and undelete it, but this can be hard to do when you have Hide Deleted
> > Messages turned on, together with Group By Threads for example.
>
> Would "undelete" include a facility for "un-transfer" in general? Or
> does "un-transfer" come under the category of a "general undo"?

Define "untransfer". In the case of IMAP, there is no such thing as
"transfer", there's only "copy and delete", and as we know, "delete"
means "mark for deletion". Thus in the simple case (when messages have
not yet been expunged) one could define "untransfer" as "unmark those
messages which were marked for deletion, and mark for deletion their
copies". Sounds reasonable, but what if the user has done several
transfers to different target folders, then deleted some stuff, and now
wants to undo the last transfer? Evo couldn't simply rely on the
"deleted" mark, but would have to maintain its own state, which starts
to get complicated (not impossible, just harder). I can see the devs not
wanting to spend time on this when there are other priorities.

And what if the user transferred stuff, then did an expunge, and now
wants to undo it? I don't know if Thunderbird or Kmail handle this
situation but somehow I doubt it, so in fact most "undo" facilities have
some limitations.

Undelete is I think easier and would satisfy most requirements.

> How would we go about getting this implemented? I think it would be a
> big help.

Evo is free software. Your options are:

1) Do it yourself
2) Hire someone to do it
3) Convince enough people it's worthwhile so someone volunteers to do
it.

> Also, I can't help asking the question that did the programmers think it
> would be better not to put in a general undo, or was it an oversight?
> Because e-mail software has had this feature since the mid 1990's.

No idea. You'd have to ask them.

poc