mxMail
Functionality support (in no particular order)
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1. PGP signatures - decode/encode these ???
Currently splits off the PGP signatures since they are part of MIME messages
so they are easy to file and decode externally. Needs to allow the ability
to add a PGP signature, and PGP-encoded message. If only I knew something
about PGP.
2. MIME - provide support for 'message/partial' tag.
It seems a bit of an obscure part of MIME - who'd want to split a message
up into many bits, and then put it back together ??? Why not just send it
as a single message. Leave for Java version if at all.
3. Ability to search large databases of mail messages quicker (regex ?)
Can now (ver 1.07) find strings in messages, just need to add ability to
find a string in all messages maybe. Leave until Java version.
4. Multiple selection of items for deletes etc in message-list.
Need a dual level of selection on the list widget - not available with Motif.
Leave until Java version.
5. Make the loading of mail-boxes much quicker, and the saving of mail-boxes
much quicker. Really want thread support for this. Could add a tag to a
message to make it easier to search through the mail folder, or do something
like what mailers like NetSlug do and have a dot file for each mailbox
containing pointers to the actual message starts.
Maybe just provide better representation that the mail-box is being read /
written.
6. Multiple addressbooks, or ability to group addresses (into threads ?)
This can wait for the Java version.
7. Internationalise it - all labels into resource file.
This can wait until the Java version, and I'll internationalise it all from
the outset.
8. Add setup option to ignore MIME tags when displaying messages (of most use
in debugging MIME support). Low priority.
9. Show mail threads on display. Wait for Java version for this.
10.Provide a mechanism for automatically moving messages from certain mailids
or 'subjects' into specified folders. Wait for Java version.
11.Extend the MailAddress class to split a mail-address into user@domain so then
can remove SPAM from a particular domain as well as specific addresses.
mxFtp
Functionality support (in no particular order)
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1. Add additional code to detect the failure of an FTP connection.
Java version will connect directo to FTP port of machine - leave this
until then when it will be easier.
2. Add a 'Stop' button to cancel out of something.
Leave til Java version since easier implementation then.
3. Drag and Drop of files ?
4. Horizontal sizing of panes
5. Ability to just press return after site, and connect then without having to
press the 'Connect' button.
6. Add logon-id and password against 'favourite' FTP sites so that remembers
logon for that site. Also add default remote directory for the FTP site.
7. Add 'reget' and 'chmod' support.
mxNews
This is not yet started, but will be sometime ... !
1. Provide support for news (basically the same as mail anyway, and there isn't
a decent news browser anywhere ...). Definitely need threads shown on the
display for this - and there isn't a free Motif version around, so probably
wait for Java version for this.
Future Work releasing
All future work will be on the Java versions of the applications.
No more work is planned on the C++/Motif version.
mxMail (Java) is being re-written in Java, using the JFC set of components and
as a result provides far greater component availability. Additionally it will
use the JavaMail classes at the bottom level (replacing the mxMailMsg,
mxMailBox, mxMailAddress, etc classes). This will provide a far simpler code
structure in that the provided code will be essentially the user interface.
This will, in turn, make PGP available, and will allow more time to be spent on
providing functionality, rather than supporting the base classes and keeping
them updated with the latest mail message formats.
The use of JavaMail will remove the need for 'sendmail', and will look after the
mailing out internally. mxMail (Java) will have a new compose option using
something more like a proper text editor (called mxEditor at the moment).
mxFtp will likewise not need a 'ftp' binary but will talk directly to the FTP
port on the remote machine.
mxNews will be far easier to provide with JFC and JavaMail since these classes
provide all of the basic capability required to write it.
The other thing that may change are the names - from mxMail, mxFtp to
something more reflective of the use of Java - as well as the fact that, in
principle, the new version can be run on any platform.