scs@vax3.iti.org (Steve Simmons) (05/11/89)
Just thought of something neat I'd like elm to do. I get a lot of
mail from mailing lists -- sun-nets, bind, elm, etc. This sort of
mail I file by mailing list, not sender. I'd like an elm feature
that would, for some pattern I explicitly select, make the name of
save folder be changed to something else.
Once opening up this potential Pandora's box, there are lots of things
once could do for this feature. For example:
o Define a list of users like 'bob fred joe jim' so that all mail
from them uses a common folder 'cs_101_students'.
o Handle name conflicts so that john@kodak.com gets filed to 'john_hall'
while john@itivax.iti.org gets filed to 'john_sauter'.
o Define mailing lists so that "To: bind-request" gets saved to
"=mailing_list/bind" (yes, I use subdirectories within my mailbox)
Why not do this with filter? One could, but filter handles the mail
*before* you read it. I'd like this to handle it *as you save*. Maybe
a 'save thru filter' function could do this, I dunno. Plus filter is
not as powerful as I'd like to see. I've looked extensively at the
code, and have concluded a complete parser rewrite (to yacc or bison
based) is needed.
Anyway, this looks like a *far* future feature. I'd be interested in
what other folks think of it.
mail
Steve Simmons Just another midwestern boy
scs@vax3.iti.org -- or -- ...!sharkey!itivax!scs
"Hey...you *can* get here from here!"larry@focsys.UUCP (Larry Williamson) (05/12/89)
In article <1144@itivax.iti.org> scs@vax3.iti.org (Steve Simmons) writes: > >Just thought of something neat I'd like elm to do. Steve goes on to describe a function that I do manually almost every day. Saving mail in a folder named after the sender is not normal for me. Almost always I like to save the article based on some other criteria. > o Handle name conflicts so that john@kodak.com gets filed to 'john_hall' > while john@itivax.iti.org gets filed to 'john_sauter'. A real problem currently. I'd love to have such conflicts resolved automatically. > o Define mailing lists so that "To: bind-request" gets saved to > "=mailing_list/bind" (yes, I use subdirectories within my mailbox) Yes! So do I. This is a wonderful concept, subdirectories, eh? I'd like to suggest another... o Define subject patterns so that "Subject: Re: looking at the sun" would be saved in "=optometry". As Steve suggested, a major piece of software would be required to do this. But I think that it would be a very nice feature. -Larry -- Larry Williamson -- Focus Systems -- Waterloo, Ontario watmath!focsys!larry (519) 746-4918
jeff@cjsa.WA.COM (Jeffery Small) (05/13/89)
In article <1144@itivax.iti.org>, scs@vax3.iti.org (Steve Simmons) writes: > > I'd like an elm feature that would, for some pattern I explicitly select, > make the name of save folder be changed to something else. > > I'd be interested in what other folks think of it. > This is a good idea and something I have also often wished for. One way to implement this might be to add another field to the alias file which would allow the user to specify the folder name for saving incoming & outbound mail from/to a particular user. this would resolve the problem of storing mail from a number of similar login IDs that you communicate with and would allow fine-grained control allowing you to save multiple IDs to the same file. (Some strategy would have to be defined to resolve the folder to use when an ID appears individually and also in one or more "groups". This of course, would require that the alias file be processed upon startup of ELM rather than upon the posting of the first outbound message. I have never created an alias-table with over 25 entries so I am wondering, for those of you who maintain extremely large alias files, does parsing the file require a significant chunk of time and would it present an unacceptable load during startup? When saving a message to a non-existing folder which is different than either (1) the current login id or (2) the currently defined alias-table folder name, ELM could prompt to see if you wanted to automatically add/update the alias-table with the new information. Comments? -- Jeffery Small (206) 485-5596 uw-beaver!uw-nsr!uw-warp C. Jeffery Small and Associates !cjsa!jeff 19112 152nd Ave NE - Woodinville, WA 98072 uunet!nwnexus
rob@PacBell.COM (Rob Bernardo) (05/14/89)
In article <610@cjsa.WA.COM> jeff@cjsa.WA.COM (Jeffery Small) writes:
+> I'd like an elm feature that would, for some pattern I explicitly select,
+> make the name of save folder be changed to something else.
+
+This is a good idea and something I have also often wished for. One way to
+implement this might be to add another field to the alias file which would
+allow the user to specify the folder name for saving incoming & outbound mail
+from/to a particular user. this would resolve the problem of storing mail
+from a number of similar login IDs that you communicate with and would allow
+fine-grained control allowing you to save multiple IDs to the same file. (Some
+strategy would have to be defined to resolve the folder to use when an ID
+appears individually and also in one or more "groups".
I see two problems here. You'd have to key off the return address and
match it against an address in your alias file.
(1) The return address an the address in your alias file can
refer to the same person but not be the same. If you go by
logname alone you can run into problems since lognames are not
unique.
(2) Even if you were able to match a return address with an
address in your alias file, you may have the same person listed
under multiple aliases (esp. group aliases). I.e. there
wouldn't necessarily be a one-to-one association.
+This of course, would require that the alias file be processed upon startup of
+ELM rather than upon the posting of the first outbound message.
+... does parsing the file require a
+significant chunk of time and would it present an unacceptable load during
+startup?
No. My alias file has about 200 entries. It may take a second or two.
--
Rob Bernardo, Pacific Bell UNIX/C Reusable Code Library
Email: ...![backbone]!pacbell!pbhyf!rob OR rob@pbhyf.PacBell.COM
Office: (415) 823-2417 Room 4E850O San Ramon Valley Administrative Center
Residence: (415) 827-4301 R Bar JB, Concord, California