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TheBat email client v4 (early alpha) - some observations

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mouser:
So i'm playing with the latest "alpha" of thebat! email client (found here on betanews; ritlabs doesn't like to post their betas on their homepage), and wanted to post some observations.

It doesn't seem or look much different from version 3.  When ritlabs moved from version 2 to version 3 there was a LOT of complaining from users that they just hiked up the version number to be able to charge for an upgrade and it happend so soon after the change from version 1 to version 2.

It seems to me that on one hand this is a bit like an arbitrary version change rather than a major change, BUT in all fairness it has been a long time since version 2 came out and version 4 hasn't been released yet.  And i give them credit for the non-stop constant improvement of the program in small increments, which has to be worth something.

The alpha still is a tiny bit buggy, but quite usable (it is after all really just an improved version 3 not a major rewrite), and i didn't find any showstoppers.

What compelled me to post though was 2 things:

The first thing is that I am a longtime user and fan of thebat and after a couple years of suffering with this bug where the program occasionally loses its connection with a mail server and enters a hung state which requires program restart, it looks like they have FINALLY fixed it!  This fix has been so long in coming and they should be ashamed it took them so long to fix it.  But i am thrilled it is fixed.  It was the one thing i hated and it's fantastic that it finally seems fixed.

The second thing is a double edged sword.  The backup and restore functionality, which ritlabs has obviously put a lot of work into, and which seems wonderfully powerful, FAILED to properly work for me.  It backs up fine, but gives an unintelligible error during the restore process, making it unusable.  Thankfully this issue is not very servere because one of the nicer things about thebat is that it saves all mail in a file directory in a way that can be simply copied or moved between machines.  This is actually one of my favorite features about thebat, that i can see all of the files and manage and backup my mail data manually, and it doesn't mind being moved around.  But this is a warning -- do NOT assume that just because the backup function worked that the restore function will.

There you have it, some early observations.  For me, I remain a fan of the program and am happy to keep using it.

ps. you can read my original review of thebat here; take the comparison with other programs with a grain of salt of course, since the review is over 2 years old and i'm sure some of the other programs (Thunderbird in particular) has grown a lot since then.

CodeTRUCKER:
Great timing since I am presently in the throes of switching mail clients. :)
I have TBat and TBird and have been making a comparison.  I also have been working with Barca 2 (Pocomail 4 mail engine).  Once 25,000+ e-mails just "disappeared" without a trace!  I couldn't even find the folders they were in, but next restart and Abracadabra! they were all back AFAICT!  I really like a lot about the way the Pocomail client works, but this type of "magic" leaves me less than confident, but I digress.   </hijack>

I used TBat for some years until about ver 3.90(?) when Ritlabs removed using the Space Bar to read the next unread messages. >:(   Fortunately they added it back in one of the latest builds.  :)

In light of your post I have a some of things I would like to know about the "new" TBat.

* Did Rilabs stay with the method of not loading HTML in-line remote images in the body (images that load in the e-mail after it is opened that are not part of the mail you received) or have they finally allowed the user to make the decision?
* Did Rilabs make it an option to allow image attachments to be viewed in the same window(tab) as the text as opposed to the present click-on-the-other-tab-to-see-your-picture method?
* Did Ritlabs make any improvements to the SmartBat (Scheduler and Notes)?  This isn't critical, but both could be less arcane.
Thank you for the heads-up! :Thmbsup:

<edit> additions and rewording </edit>

mouser:
i'm afraid i'm not going to be too much help here since most of the questions you ask are things i don't use.
never tried smartbat so i have no idea.
regarding nohtml inline, could you be a little more specific?  what i do know is you can choose whether to view and respond to messages with html either as they are, or as always plaintext (which is what i choose).  so i never see any html or inline images.  all pictures and attachments for me are always shown in a panel where i have to click to view (which is how i like it).  i did look for a way to show attached images immediately without clicking and didn't find any way to do so, but the attachment images are all listed as tabs at the bottom of the message so it's just one click to view each one.

aignes:
It seems to me that on one hand this is a bit like an arbitrary version change rather than a major change, BUT in all fairness it has been a long time since version 2 came out and version 4 hasn't been released yet.  And i give them credit for the non-stop constant improvement of the program in small increments, which has to be worth something.
--- End quote ---

As far as I know, version 4 will be a free update. But RitLabs will charge for version 4.1 where they introduce a new user interface. I can't remember where it was mentioned, but I read it some time ago in a blog or so...

marek_mikus:
Hi guys, let me answer some of your questions, because I am using alphas

there will be many and major improvements, this can not be really compared to upgrade from v2 to v3.

1) downloading remote images to HTML messages is implemented, there is an URL download manager, where You will be able to allow/block requested hostnames

2) there is a new images viewer, You can view all images attached to message in one window, it is possible to rotate, zoom, fullscreen etc.

3) the bat! will internally suppport decoding of Microsoft's MS-TNEF format! not sure, how many clients supports it, as I think, only MS's products

4) there is completely new plaintext editor and viewer, it is Unicode based now, supports Redo, supports new spellchecking engine, there will be possible to use more dictionaries at the same time etc.

5) there is completely new feature for monitoring history of communication based on virtual folders

6) there is completely reworked tabs and folder pane, You can set columns for every tab, change their order, create its own tabs with selected addresses from history and folders from accounts

7) there is new searching pane in viewer

and many other smaller improvements

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