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Talk:Thunderbird:Future of Thunderbird: Difference between revisions
Talk:Thunderbird:Future of Thunderbird (view source)
Revision as of 08:52, 4 August 2007
, 4 August 2007→Roadmap suggestion: Focus on backend, features will follow
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I would like to suggest an outlook (sorry about the pun) which is almost diametrically opposed to what I've been reading people say on talkbacks, forums, etc. | I would like to suggest an outlook (sorry about the pun) which is almost diametrically opposed to what I've been reading people say on talkbacks, forums, etc. | ||
Most people's suggestions seem to be about 2 things: Fix their personally-favorite UI bug :-) and add new features - calendaring, instant messaging, etc. I believe that as long as you are just two full-time developers, this is not a good idea. I find that the current | Most people's suggestions seem to be about 2 things: Fix their personally-favorite UI bug :-) and add new features - calendaring, instant messaging, etc. I believe that as long as you are just two full-time developers, this is not a good idea. I find that the current Thunderbird development community is overstretched as it is. With more resources, feature-set expansion is more reasonable. | ||
The alternative, in my view, is to focus on improving | The alternative, in my view, is to focus on improving Thunderbird's back end: | ||
# Disentangle back-end API from the front-end, e.g. folder operations which for some reason require msgwindows and require 'selecting' folders, or the address book, in which AFAICR you have to interact with the address book window to add/remove/manipulate entries | |||
# Allow for more non-UI work to be done outside of the main thread | |||
# Add support for more mail storage formats (maildir, databases, maybe even other mail clients' formats), | |||
# Support situations in which multiple processes (or threads) are working on the same mail folders / mail db / etc. at the same time | |||
# Rework some older and cruftier parts of the code (like libmime) | |||
# allow for real manipulation of messages in code (i.e. have message objects rather than just message header objects) | |||
# Expand the concept of a message to accommodate future work with instant messaging or forums-via-mail-client and other such modes of communication and interaction | |||
# Create a more powerful and more versatile filtering framework | |||
# Improve the documentation and the readability of backend code and of the innumerable cryptic interfaces and methods. | |||
I think the focus on 'enabling' work | I think the focus on 'enabling' work - backend improvement work - should allow more people to get involved with Thunderbird development in general, expand the possibilities of what can be done with extensions, and perhaps even lure people who are now only extension developers to get involved with core development. These last few goals are what I wish to stress the most - even if you disagree with some of the foci I listed in the previous paragraph. | ||
== A new vision and roadmap for Thunderbird. == | == A new vision and roadmap for Thunderbird. == | ||