Roadmap

The Future of NeoMutt

This is a rough guide to some of the bigger goals for NeoMutt.
Some of the ideas will take a long time to become real…

Unless you help :-)

Table of Contents

• Config System – Validation and notification

• Accounts – User-defined accounts and account-specific config

• libconn – Make network connection code independent of NeoMutt

• libimap – Make IMAP code independent of NeoMutt

• Summary Pages – Add lots of commands to display useful info

• Help System – Make it easier to find the help you need

• Nested Windows – Change GUI architecture

• Mouse Support – Make mouse clicks useful

• Colours/Attrs – Better colour and attribute support

• OAuth2 Support – Support OAuth2 Authentication

• Browser Rewrite – Rebuild the file/folder browser

Config System

Description: Validation and notification
Status: In progress

Refactor the handling of config items to define types, enable notifications and perform validation.
Most of these changes won’t be visible to the user.

Accounts

Description: User-defined accounts and account-specific config
Status: Blocked by Config System

Create an account object that has its own config. This will simplify the setup for multiple accounts and remove the need for many hooks.

libconn

Description: Make network connection code independent of NeoMutt
Status: Started

Making the code independent of NeoMutt will make it easier to maintain and test.

libimap

Description: Make IMAP code independent of NeoMutt
Status: Blocked by libconn

Making the code independent of NeoMutt will make it easier to maintain and test.

Summary Pages

Description: Add lots of commands to display useful info
Status: Started
See also: neomutt/neomutt#162

There are lots of possibilities:

• :color display all NeoMutt’s colours

• :set display variables that have been set

• :messages display the recent messages / errors

Help System

Description: Make it easier to find the help you need
Status: Future

Everything’s documented in NeoMutt, but too often users can’t find what they need to know. Change the Guide to be more task-oriented. Make it easier for users to contribute to the Guide.

Nested Windows

Description: Change GUI architecture
Status: Future

Replace the five standard windows: Index, Message, Help, Sidebar, Status with a nested set. This would simplify the redrawing and the key binding logic. This would be the first step to an MVC architecture.

Mouse Support

Description: Make mouse clicks useful
Status: Blocked by Nested Windows

NeoMutt already has some mouse support (try your mouse wheel in the index).
It should be pretty simple to turn ncurses mouse events into functions like:

• Index: <display-message>

• Sidebar: <sidebar-open>

• Compose: <edit-to>

Colours/Attrs

Description: Better colour and attribute support
Status: Future

Curses severely limits how NeoMutt can display colours and attributes. Many other curses applications manage colour display themselves. Using Vim as a model, allow the user to pick and mix colours, attributes and transparency.

OAuth2 Support

Description: Support OAuth2 Authentication
Status: Future

Supporting OAuth2 doesn’t require many changes to NeoMutt. Initially, NeoMutt would ask the server for a token and get the user to visit the server’s website. This saved token can then be used to login to the server for POP/IMAP/SMTP connections.

Browser Rewrite

Description: Rebuild the file/folder browser
Status: Future

NeoMutt’s browser is complicated to use and has dependencies on all the major mailbox types. It needs to be made independent.