Enhancements for Thunderbird 115

[swbrains]

I've installed TB 115, and have the following suggestions for enhancements:

1) Each new release makes many extensions unusable until the author updates them, which could take months, or never occur, making upgrading more like downgrading due to the loss of necessary functionality.  With that in mind, here are two common features I have found lacking in TB for years, and have had to rely on extensions to add them.  I would envision these as settings that could be enabled or disabled by the user:
a)  Close on reply.  When I open a message to read it in a separate window and click Reply, I would like the original message window to close.  Right now, after replying, the original message window remains and must be closed manually.
b) Startup folder: Currently, TB opens to the folder that was last displayed.  However, my common usage is to open TB to check for new messages, meaning I would prefer to see the Inbox every time I open the app, regardless of which folder I was viewing when I closed the app.

2) The menu bar is now displayed under the main toolbar instead of at the top of the app window like most apps.  This seems inconsistent with most Windows apps that have a menu bar, making it's use less intuitive.  II would like to see it follow standard convention and keep it at the top of the main window above other elements like the toolbar (or at least allow its positioning to be configurable).

3) The compose window toolbar seems less flexible.  I used to be able to customize the toolbar at the top of the compose window to include Reply, Forward and Delete buttons.   These buttons are no longer able to be placed in the toolbar when viewing the toolbar's Customize feature, but instead are fixed to the right of the "From" field, and that area does not appear to be customizable.  I prefer having the larger buttons with text under icons at the top of the message composition window in the toolbar area.

Thanks for your consideration of these suggestions.

[alvewe]

Adding more notes on the same topic:

- On the plugin versions, I just update the version limit on the plugin and, most of the time, it works.

   Why no just let the user decide?

- The new interfase need some work.....

a. Now, changing columng width is ver difficult. They 'snap' automatically to some predetermined with

b. The tag view (on the left) having a lot of folders is very sluggish

[swbrains]

I did try updating the internal version limit on one plugin and it allowed it to load, but didn't work correctly.  Luckily, there was a github discussion where another user actually made the necessary changes to update the add-on and that worked!  😊  

Still waiting for another add-on to be updated:  One that adds "close on reply" functionality.  But I honestly think that should be a native option given all of the more esoteric options that made it into the app (for example, the option to hide the TO/FROM/DATE labels in the message window).