Mac Forum / Applications / Eudora / October 2006

I have been using Eudora for many years, and have come to rely on its
features, many of which have no equivalent in other mail clients.

Now the Penelope project is saying they want input on what features we
(the users) regard as most important. It might be worth compiling a
combined list of features to guide them in their work. Even if they
cannot provide all these features in the first release, it will allow
them to plan the implementation so as to be able to include them later.

So here is a starting point, in no particular order - except for the
first one!! If you want to add items, please consider including a brief
description of why you see it as important.

* Mac-like interface, ie, uses Mac conventions in window layout and
themes, menu names, popup menu behaviour, etc. (And for many of us long
term users, some of the OS X features should be optional, eg, drawers.
They can be there, but the interface should have alternate "traditional"
ways to do the same thing.)

* Fast operation

* Fast search (not Spotlight!)

* Separate windows for mailbox lists and messages

* Good support for personalities, especially that many things are
configurable on a per personality basis rather than globally

* Powerful filtering (although it has to be said that while the current
filter dialogues work, they are a little cumbersome if you have lots of
filters. Some way of grouping related filters would be wonderful.)

* Ability to label messages with colours and text. (I use this to flag
messages that need further action, are a note to help me find them in
future, or are related to a particular project.)

* Ability to change the Subject of a received message so as to make it
more meaningful so it can be found more easily

* Ability to have stationery and signatures selectable by personality,
and to override them for individual messages

* Support for POP and IMAP

* Recipient lists

* Good junk mail filtering

* Hierarchical mailbox structure, ie, mailboxes within folders within
folders...

* Ability to queue mail before sending (I have often written a message
and clicked on send, to realise a few minutes later that I should have
included something else, or been a little more temperate in my choice of
words. Queueing messages gives me some time to change a message before
it gets out of my control.)

* Auto-complete nicknames, and do this immediately

* Ability to select which columns are displayed in a mailbox window.
(Would be nice to be able to rearrange the columns too!)

* Ability to read mail as plain text, ie, not HTML, and to send mail as
plain text.

* Many, many of the configuration options such as the Moving Around and
Getting Attention settings.

* Comprehensive logging options (The logging has allowed me to solve
various strange behaviours over the years.)

* Desktop margins, ie, making windows leave space for the dock or other
items on the desktop

* Deleting duplicate messages

* Smart paste, ie, pasting attributions before text from another message

* Hide boring headers

* Threading (Would be great if it were possible to put checking mail
into separate threads so all accounts were not held up by one having
problems.)

* Authenticated HTTP proxy support

* Spell checking, including the autocorrect dictionary from Adam Engst,
and availablity of dictionaries for dialects of English and other
languages

* Ability to increase or decrease quoting level while composing a
message, and to paste text as a quote.

Note that there will be seemingly contradictory features in a combined
list, eg, some people *love* three-paned interfaces, while others run a
mile from them. This should not be taken to be a fight for which one
gets implemented. It should really be considered that the developers
need to provide a choice of window metaphor to make everyone happy.

If there are a lot of extra suggestions, I will try to compile them into
a single list from time to time.

Cheers

David