The interface displays lists of messages in pages between which the user can navigate with Move back and Move forward commands (bound to alt-left and alt-right keys), like in a web browser. When a new set of results is requested, a new page is opened, replacing the list of messages previously on screen. Other pages can be instantly displayed back on screen by moving through pages, back and forward.
These commands are meant to let the user navigate rapidly through lists of messages.
Example: a message currently on screen is
from john.doe@example.org
. The user right clicks
on the subject line and choose the Last 10 messages from
john.doe@example.org
command.
The program then opens a new page with the results.
The user wades through the results, and when done, comes back to the
previous page by issuing .
The display and selection will then be restored as they were before
the Last 10 messages... command was issued.
The number of pages that are kept in memory is a configuration
parameter named msg_window_pages
which defaults to
5. It means that when a new page is opened while there are already
five result pages in memory, the older page (number 1) is removed from
the memory to get room for the new one. The page number 2 becomes
number 1, 3 becomes 2, and so on.
When a new page is opened while there are other pages after it, the new page becomes the tail of the pages list, which means that the pages that were after can no longer be accessed with the
command. This matches web browsers behavior.A new window with an entirely new set of pages (initially blank) can be opened with the
command. Different windows are handled completely independently from each other, except that when several windows show the same message, a status change or a deletion of that message is visually propagated to all windows.