Re: On My Mac
Re: On My Mac
- Subject: Re: On My Mac
- From: Luther Fuller <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:32:07 -0500
On Jun 3, 2009, at 8:18 AM, Axel Luttgens wrote:
Strictly speaking, an "On My Mac" mailbox is a mailbox that is not
related to a mail account.
I've been looking into that, too. My observation is that "On My Mac"
describes a mailbox whose message storage folder is actually located
within ~/Library/Mail/ as opposed to being stored on the server. These
mailboxes may appear under the headings "Inbox", "Sent", &c. This
leads to the ridiculous conclusion that an "On My Mac" mailbox may NOT
be an "On My Mac" mailbox. Mathematicians call this an inconsistency
and programmers call it a bug.
So, a test like this one might prove sufficient:
if account of (get properties of mbox) is missing value then...
Since Mail.app seems to make all those mailboxes available through
its "mailboxes" element, a heavier yet equivalent test should be:
if {mbox} is in mailboxes then...
Asking for the account of a mailbox seems not to be useful. I've tried
that, but nothing makes sense. I agree with the remainder of your
analysis. My current handlers seem to work properly, so I will
continue to use them, perhaps with small improvements.
The problem here is caused by an inconsistent use of the phrase "On My
Mac". A naive (non-programmer) Mail user sees "On My Mac" simply as a
grouping for mailboxes and knows nothing of the inner technical
details of Mail. I want my application to create the illusion that "On
My Mac" means exactly what it looks like to a naive user. This is
proving to be do-able, but difficult.
This difficulty we are having points out a general principle of
engineering and programming. Namely: Engineers (including programmers)
should never, never, never write the user's manual. (And I have to
write both! I take off my programmer's hat, put on my user's hat, then
discover days or weeks later that the programmer was an idiot.)
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| References: | |
| | >On My Mac (From: Luther Fuller <email@hidden>) |
| | >Re: On My Mac (From: Axel Luttgens <email@hidden>) |