[Pan-users] Re: Feedback, Please: sorting threads by date of newest article

[Duncan]

Charles Kerr <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Mon, 10 Jul 2006
11:52:14 -0500:

> In http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/pan-users/2006-07/msg00040.html I
> asked for suggestions on user-friendly ways to sort threads by the date of
> the thread's newest post, rather than (as Pan does now) by the date of the
> thread's oldest post.
> 
> But stating it in those clear terms, though, I realized: I can't think of
> any /need/ to sort by the oldest post. Maybe the cleanest fix is that,
> when sorting by date in the header pane, threads are *always* sorted by
> the date of the thread's newest post. IIRC this is how Thunderbird
> behaves, too.
> 
> Can anyone think of a reason for Pan to /not/ behave that way?

Yes.  If I sort thread by date, with both read and unread overviews
visible, that's what I want -- all visible sibling posts sorted
by date. If I I want to sort only the unread subthreads by date, I view
only unread subthreads, and /then/ sort by date.

I'd find anything else rather seriously frustrating and
unintuitive/illogical. Therefore, if you plan to implement such a thing, at
/least/ make it an option, either with a second column, or with a checkbox
in preferences. (The latter might be preferable save for trying to
suitably and clearly label it.  It'll probably be one of those settings
you just have to try, to figure out what it does, only I think it would be
sufficiently illogical and unintuitive that without having it explained to
me, I might consider it effectively unsorted order.  It simply doesn't fit
my view of the way a sorted column "ought" to behave!)

If you get the idea I do /not/ like the idea, you'd be right! =8^\ 
However, I supposed I could stomach it if it's an option.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman