Subject: Directories and Folders...

From: Jeff Baxter <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2003 23:04:14 -0400 (EDT)

Hello all -

Not so much a bug, as a request for some advice...

We use Pine on a few servers (differing versions, but this seems to affect
all of them - 4.44 for example) to connect to our IMAP server.

We previously used Sun Internet Mail Server, SIMS version 4. When a
directory was created (as opposed to a mail folder), it appeared with a
[/] suffix - and hitting "Enter" or ">" took you to a listing of the mail
folders (or other directories) within. Probably because Pine knew SIMS
didn't support having mail in a directory, just in folders..

We migrated this weekend to Sun One Messaging (also known as iPlanet
Messaging Server), version 5.2. All of a sudden every folder is now a
directory with a [/] suffix - probably just a "feature" of the migration.

That's livable. Here's the problem. Any directories from before (not
folders, directories) at first appeared to have nothing in them. What we
eventually discovered was the distinction between using the ">" key to
enter the directory and see the sub-folders (which were all there) and
using the "Enter" key to view messages actually in the directory (of which
there were none).

So.... long story short... isn't there any way to make this more
intuitive? For example, have "Enter" list the sub-directories if there's
no actual mail in the directory itself? Or have it so that when you hit
"Enter" it shows you the sub-directories *and* the mail itself (or at
least an option saying "View mail in this actual directory?)

Right now, we have users who think they have "lost" mail folders because
they enter a directory and see nothing when using the "Enter" key. We are
trying to re-educate them, but it seems like there should be a better way.
I've searched the setable options, and don't see anything on point for
this.

Thanks for any help!

Jeff Baxter
Manager, Technology Engineering
Information Systems and Services
George Washington University

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