Date: Mon, 31 Aug 87 10:23 PDT
From: Jerry Bakin <Jerry@blue-jaunte.inference.dialnet.symbolics.com>
I could easily write something to check the last time any mailbox from
some list was changed, but this would ping on any change not just
addition of a new message. It would be nice to have the "flag lowered"
automatically as the message is read.
Your MAIL.TEXT file is never modified except to add new mail. When
Zmail does a Get Inbox, the first thing it does is rename it to
MAIL._ZMAIL_TEXT, and then all it does it read it and delete it when you
save out the corresponding mail file. So, it would be valid to indicate
that you have new mail whenever the modification date changes or
whenever the file changes from nonexistent to existing.
If I knew more (like if it were documented) about the protocol used to
spread mail around, I could write an after message, or whopper or advice
to raise the flag when a message came in and the user was logged in.
This would seem to be the best approach. When "Get Inbox" was clicked
on the appropriate mailbox, the flag could be lowered.
Since Get Inbox renames MAIL.TEXT, and the mail server recreates it, the
flag up/down is simple: if the file exists the flag should be up, and
if it doesn't the flag should be down.
barmar