Re: Retrieving threads across folders

[David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com>]

On Dec 7, 2009, at 7:35 AM, Vitaly Mayatskikh wrote:

> At Sun, 6 Dec 2009 06:06:25 +0800, David Abrahams wrote:
> 
>> Here's what I need, and I'm hoping Wanderlust can provide:
>> 
>> When I get a new message in a thread, I'd like to be able to quickly see the rest of the thread (as long as I have the messages somewhere), even if I'm looking at the summary of a folder that holds only a subset of the thread.
>> 
>> On a gmail account, for example, that would mean archived messages in a thread become quickly accessible whenever a new message in that thread comes in.
>> 
>> Other IMAP accounts I use store the entire history of messages I've received in a separate folder, so I can read them even after they've been deleted from my INBOX.
>> 
>> Is there any way to do that, or is implementing it a practical idea?
> 
> You can join several mail sources into one virtual folder. For
> example, in this query I filter mails to me in lkml, netdev and
> ppc-dev IMAP folders:
> 
> /from:v.mayatskih|tocc:v.mayatskih/%lkml:v.mayatskih@imap.gmail.com:993!,%netdev:v.mayatskih@imap.gmail.com:993!,%ppc-dev:v.mayatskih@imap.gmail.com:993! "my-lkml"
> 
> This is line from my ~/.folders

This is terrific, but AFAICT it doesn't quite do what I need.  

I want to read my messages in a folder that includes only things I haven't "archived" (or deleted from that folder if you prefer -- I can easily make a history folder that stores everything that has ever come in).  Archiving is an important way of getting things that have been dealt with out of my face without making them inaccessible.  When a new message comes in, I want a fast way to see it in context and access other messages from the same thread without having to look around for the corresponding copy of the message in some giant folder that overwhelms me with information.

Unless I'm misunderstanding, using a virtual folder wouldn't get me there --- either I'd have to look at all the messages all the time, or I'd have to switch folders and dig around to find the rest of the thread.  Am I missing something?

--
David Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://boostpro.com