Talk:Penelope

More details?

Where and when will more details on planned features, and the Penelope roadmap, be available? I am especially interested in the UI plans for the Mac version of Penelope -- will a platform-native UI be provided, or will Penelope use the same kind of multiplatform (XUL?) UI that Thunderbird uses? The following thread on the Eudora forums might be of interest to Penelope developers: [1] and any responses would be welcome. Thanks for beginning this project; I'm eager to hear more information (e.g. when will a CVS repository be established, so we can see what's being developed and contribute?). -- Rbellin 11:15, 11 October 2006 (PDT)

My Want-List for MacEudora

What to add: 1. A universal binary for Intel Macs 2. Eudora badly needs to understand UTF-8 3. Though I always send plain text emails, Eudora badly needs to know how to render the piles of HTML emails I do receive. 4. Add more than 2 options in the filters; add a GREP interface for filters.

What not to change 1. No forcing me to use a triple interface. I want every mailbox to open automatically as a list in a separate windows when new emails are filtered into the boxes. 2. Maintain the wonderfully complex and innumerable preferences. 3. Maintain the Eudora Folder, so I can easily synch with multiple computers. 4. Keep the emails/boxes as simple text files. 5. Zap the resource fork prefs. -- Kernos 2:42, 11 October 2006 (CDT)

We don't need another Outlook clone - we'd like Eudora

The reason people buy Eudora (OK, some get it in Paid) is because they like the particular things it does.

My tuppence: HTML rendering can be handled by the HTML engines in respective OSs. Then let's keep the things that Eudora does do - mailboxes in their own windows (and remembering where they are), scriptability on Apple at least, and - oh yes - speed. Speed is the real killer bit. Speed of searching even very very big (text file) mailboxes, speed of sorting and checking.

Eudora + Threading = Good

That is the feature at the top of my list that I'd like to see added to Eudora. Despite many requests for from many people over the years, it just never seemed to be a priority before. We got features like MoodWatch instead (eww). Beyond that, I'd like to see Eudora continue to be the excellent email client it has always been. --Hapster 14:16, 11 October 2006 (PDT)

How about Linux?

One major reason I'm running Windows emulation on my Linux box is so I can keep running Eudora. I've been waiting for Eudora or Linux for years. I haven't ported to a Linux mail client because I've got dozens of folders and hundreds of mailbox files and addressbook stuff that got mangled the only time I did a serious try at changing over.

If "Eudora" in future is going to be a shell or other sort of extension running over Thunderbird, can that shell/extension be ported to Linux?

Eudora features that matter to me

Here are some of the things that make me stick with Eudora:

• Ability to display mailboxes in individual windows. Ability to set mailboxes to open when new messages filter into them.

• Option-click grouping. The ability to rapidly group all messages in a thread, or all messages from a particular author, comes in handy all the time.

• AppleScript scriptability. (I know, I know... getting that supported in Thunderbird will be really rough, but without it, things will not be good.)

• Keyboard shortcut to move to the next message in the stack while a current message is open. This behavior is something I've come to rely on in Eudora, and it drives me up a tree that Apple Mail doesn't do it. (Yes, I prefer to read my messages in separate windows, not in a preview pane.) Jsnell 16:39, 11 October 2006 (PDT)

Please Keep Mailbox File Structure

Though I love many things about the Eudora interface, the most important reason I have never moved to Outlook is the terrible way Outlook has of saving your entire email archive in a single, gigantic file.

I've had that single gigantic file get corrupted at various jobs I've worked where they forced me to use Outlook. It's also a tremendous pain to back it up.

Please keep Eudora's mailbox file structure.

Feature request

Something I've always wanted in Eudora: checkboxes in the dropdown recipient list.

By recipient list I mean the list that drops down when you do Message | New Message To or Edit | Insert Recipient

Right now if I want to CC an email to ten people I need laboriously Insert each Recipient seperately.

I've wanted a checkoff list for as long as I've used the program.

Priorities & Philosophy

I think that it would be good to know & discuss the priorities & philosophy for development work. The initial Roadmap is vague, though understandably at this time. I look at this primarily from a Mac OS X viewpoint, looking at 3.0a1.

For priorities, many of us have supported Eudora on both Mac and PC platforms for many years. Over the years, users have drifted to other clients for a variety of reasons. #1 priority for me, on a tech support level, would be a way to bring back users from other clients in a reliable and functional way. This may necessitate a stand alone converter/translator similar to Emailchemy. All other email clients to Eudora, Mac or PC. Maintain attachment and inline graphic information and location.

Next priority would be to tie into existing OS X technologies, similarly to Mail. Support for live Address Book access and updating (not a one time import feature), iCal events, etc. Build for new Leopard technologies in this area.

Allow multiple prefs.js files to open separate groups of identities. I currently use multiple Eudora folders, each with multiple personalities, each accessed via alias to Eudora Settings file. This could be accomplished using multiple Profile folders and a Profile Manager.

Philosophically, what will the look and feel be like? Tri-panel is very restrictive, and too much like Outlook. Allow for more windowing flexibility like Eudora Mac currently has. Multiple open mailboxes unbound from the tri-panel. Drag and drop messages between mailboxes and to the desktop. Don't confuse mailboxes with folders. Eudora does it right by allowing a folder that you put mailboxes in. A folder with both email and another folder is too confusing for many.

Use Mac UI similarly to the way Camino departs from Firefox and Mozilla, yielding a better user experience. Need to explicitly line out the differences between the existing Thunderbird project and Penelope. i.e is Penelope superseding Thunderbird? Is it parallel development, so both clients survive? Will Eudora 7 PC code and Mac Eudora 7 UB code (if existent) be combined to a common source base and then integrated with Thunderbird? Or will it be all new development, just bringing the "look and feel" and some features of Eudora to Thunderbird via extensions and themes?

Jim

Features Discussion

I have over 200,000 messages in my assorted mailboxes, so the search and filter functionality is key to me. I've got over 100 filters (and many more that have been retired), so they need to keep current functionality, stay fast, and improve: more than two criteria would cut down the number I need.

I like the Windows indexed search, but I'd like Spotlight integration as well/better, as long as it's fast. I agree with the commenter who wanted to use system-wide functions when possible.

I use less than 10 personalities, and managing that seems easy.

As a long-time Eudora user with way too much mail to consider migrating, I'd like to see a feature comparison or gap analysis so I know what good things are coming from T-Bird that I just never bothered to find out about.

Also, I'd prefer if it used the system rendering engine so it wasn't extra-bulky. WebKit on MacOSX, please.

My $0.02, Michael Croft

Suggestions

While I love Eudora & have used it since 2.x but I also would love to see a Calendar feature such as Lightning & some improvements in the address book as far as contacts are concerned & in this way I finally can get rid of Outhouse.

For the most part tho I would take great care not to change too much with the existing program as you wouldn't want to alienate the existing user base.

I belong to an Eudora 4 Windows email list & I hope that continues as I much prefer that to online forums altho those aren't as bad as they use to be since more & more people are acquiring hispeed access but email lists cater better to those who as stuck with dialup.

Thank You for listening to my requests.

Unicode: sine qua non

One reason people like me stick with Eudora and don't move to Mail or Thunderbird is that we rely on Eudora's simplicity and functionality. A lot of that has to do with keyboard navigation through messages and mailboxes. I see that "remapping of accelerator keys" is one of the things scheduled for Release 0.1. I hope that this does not change navigation behaviour too much, but I am not sure what "accelerator" means here.

Another reason is that Eudora is simple but powerful enough to manage our e-mail. I have 21,000 items in my In box, 69MB, some going back as far as 1995. I do use other mailboxes, and am not a mindless packrat -- but my In box is large, and serves as my file-cabinet. My Out box too is large, 26,000 items, only 34MB. I don't know about Thunderbird, but Apple's Mail can't handle this at all as far as I can see.

There is only one area in which Eudora is actually broken, and I would like to beg the team to make fixing this their priority. The essence of e-mail is plain-text communication. Not spam protection, or fancy filtering, or scripting, or HTML. But plain old text in languages that people want to use. And that's were Eudora fails us: The text engine has not been updated to enable processing of UTF-8 text both in and out. Evertype 03:09, 12 October 2006 (PDT)