Kmail and html formatted email

[Vogateer]

Obviously this topic can get people heated, but I thought it was interesting.

I've been using Thunderbird for a while, and there's at least a couple of features that I find handy. I understand why people don't like html formatted emails, but we do use html to send messages out at work. If people are going to demand formatting in emails, I do prefer this to sending out a PDF as an attachment, even though I would prefer to simply use plain text.

I started to use KDE again recently, just to see how the 3.5 series was doing, and I was surprised at how little support Kmail has for writing html messages. I don't even think I want anything fancy, just to be able to use header tags and to include links that you can click on, but I can't find this feature in Kmail at all. In Thunderbird, it even lets you edit the source of the message, and that comes in handy if you want to use something like "small-caps" formatting.

Also, I like Thunderbird's "Edit as New" feature. Since I use the same format for a lot of emails, I can just click on a recent one, click on "Edit as New" and make a few changes and send that off. Combine the lack of this feature with the anemic support of html formatting, and I can't even come close to doing this in Kmail. I also saw the promising-sounding word "Template" in the menus, only to find there was practically no documentation or mention of it in the documentation or on the web.

Please note, I don't want to start an "html in email is evil" thread, since there are plenty of those out there.

This simply made me wonder, are Kmail developers working on features with which I'm unfamiliar or devoting most of their time to port to KDE4? I really didn't see any change in Kmail since I last used it two years ago, while Thunderbird in those same two years has added some nice features and has some nifty extensions as well.

I went to the Kontact web site, and they haven't noted any changes since 3.4:
http://kontact.kde.org/kmail/features.php

[Tsuroerusu]

This simply made me wonder, are Kmail developers working on features with which I'm unfamiliar or devoting most of their time to port to KDE4? I really didn't see any change in Kmail since I last used it two years ago, while Thunderbird in those same two years has added some nice features and has some nifty extensions as well.

This is exactly right! The entire KDE 3.5.x branch is in maintenance mode, and doesn't get any new features, but only bug fixes, new features go into KDE 4. Right now they are doing a MAJOR rework of the backend storage system of their entire suite of PIM software (Kontact), which includes KMail, KOrganizer, KAddressbook and so on.
So yeah, you won't see anything new, except for bug fixes and security fixes, in the KDE 3.5.x versions of KMail. And I think this is a good policy, because maintaining two different versions, is just a nightmare and sooo not worth the time, when it will be both easier and better to implement new features in the KDE 4 series.

However, like I have said before, if you're expecting KDE to be this magically new and perfect desktop, you're going to be disappointed, KDE 4.0 is laying A LOT of foundational work for the entire KDE 4 cycle.

[Vogateer]

Thanks for clarifying Tsuroerusu. I remembered the devs sneaking a few goodies into the 3.5 branch, but thinking back on it, I only remember them adding little things and no updates to a program as major as Kmail. Anyhow, I completely agree with them keeping KDE 3.5 in maintenance mode.

I can understand that a lot of KDE4 is writing the frameworks so that applications can take advantage of them, but there should be at least a few nice changes to look forward to. The icon set and styling seem to be a bit cleaner, and I'm hoping that there are at least some updates (like Kmail) on top of the porting effort. I know, for instance, that Koffice 2 will be a part of KDE4, and I'm really looking forward to that. I was using Kword the other day and the performance was such a breath of fresh air compared to OO.o, everything was so responsive.

So, though I know some of these frameworks won't be used until application developers write in support for them, I still wonder exactly how much is going to be updated with the initial KDE4 releases. Plasma is obviously going to be a part of it, Koffice 2.0, Oxygen icons, games using SVG, and other features. I'm just not sure how much of these new features are going to be in there, but I'm sure there's enough to get excited about.

[Tsuroerusu]

Thanks for clarifying Tsuroerusu.

It was my pleasure.
* Tsuroerusu bows

I remembered the devs sneaking a few goodies into the 3.5 branch, but thinking back on it, I only remember them adding little things and no updates to a program as major as Kmail. Anyhow, I completely agree with them keeping KDE 3.5 in maintenance mode.

Yeah, in KDE 3.5.5 they introduced a new version of Kopete, I think 3.5.6 had some updates to translations, 3.5.7 had a few new features in Kicker related to the transparency feature. 3.5.8 had a whole shitload of bugfixes and all that good stuff. I saw a KDE developer say that they plan to support 3.5.x for years, which is nice, because if they keep fixing over 300 bugs every 7th month, this desktop is gonna be the most solid ever or something. Good stuff. Although I can't wait until KDE 4.x becomes really solid, that should be a great time to look forward to in coming years.

I can understand that a lot of KDE4 is writing the frameworks so that applications can take advantage of them, but there should be at least a few nice changes to look forward to. The icon set and styling seem to be a bit cleaner, and I'm hoping that there are at least some updates (like Kmail) on top of the porting effort. I know, for instance, that Koffice 2 will be a part of KDE4, and I'm really looking forward to that. I was using Kword the other day and the performance was such a breath of fresh air compared to OO.o, everything was so responsive.

Actually KOffice 2 is not a part of KDE 4.x, it will be released just around when KDE 4.0 comes out. Obviously they're shooting for around the same time, but they might be a few days apart and KOffice isn't an integral part of KDE. But yeah, the KDE 4.x versions of KMail, KOrganizer etc. etc. will all run on GNU/Linux, *BSD, UNIX, Mac OS X and Windows.

So, though I know some of these frameworks won't be used until application developers write in support for them, I still wonder exactly how much is going to be updated with the initial KDE4 releases. Plasma is obviously going to be a part of it, Koffice 2.0, Oxygen icons, games using SVG, and other features. I'm just not sure how much of these new features are going to be in there, but I'm sure there's enough to get excited about.

Plasma is the desktop metaphor that you will see on the screen, so obviously that is a huge part of it. Yeah like you said, you won't see the advantages of Phonon, Decibel, Solid etc. until they're implemented in the applications that you use. I know that the Amarok folks are working hard on Amarok 2, so Phonon will definitely be implemented in that quite quickly. And just in general, there's so many cool new frameworks that when used together could potentially do some amazing things. Also, another thing about KDE 4 is the Nepumuk project which is desktop semantics and various things that aims to make the desktop act in new ways that will make it more modern and more easy to use, rather than the whole thing that we use today which is based on the hardware limitations of 1984.