After a string of bad design decisions, like turning the default view to threaded and removing connecting thread lines, moving the main menu bar to underneath the unified toolbar, and the recent folder naming disaster, the new kids on the block are now moving to the implementation of a feature that allows filtering on untagged messages. This was requested in 2011.
Betterbird had an initial implementation in version 91 in 2021 with a second button, called the "two button solution":
where a second button allowed selecting untagged messages additionally. This was replaced in version 115 by the ability to negate not only tags, but also the other filter buttons (unread, starred, in-address-book, etc.) as well as text filters:
Thunderbird's director bagged on this implementation, as reported in an earlier post.
Now watching the now Thunderbird kids trying to implement the feature is a real disaster. At first, the suggestion to add a third selector to Any of / All of is put forward:
When a reviewer voices objection (quote):
he is swiftly removed. The patch author, now impersonates the UX team and replies:
And then a well-meaning clueless employee suggests:
Wow, wow, wow, such genius. Only that this very same solution was considered and rejected in 2016. And there is more brilliance:
What was that sentence? "Perfection is the enemy of good" 😄 That's a long-standing Thunderbird principle: Wait (forever) until the perfect solution comes alone.
And then, in reply to a comment, You are aware that exclusions work today via right-click and that the excluded tag(s) is/are struck out? we have:
I don't see a strike out when I use shift
Dazzling, for sure, from someone who has been on the project from 24 years.
What's up next?