[comp.mail.mush] Questions and wish list

schaefer@ogccse.ogc.edu (Barton E. Schaefer) (07/22/89)

In article <1438@opus.cs.mcgill.ca> bajan@opus.UUCP (Alan Emtage) writes:
} 
} (1) Is there currently any way of feeding mush the header of the mail you
} want to send and then have it drop into its usual "sending" mode. The
} reason I ask is that I would like to use mush as my mailer when replying
} or following up to usenet articles.

I sent Alan the Rnmush script via E-mail.  If there's anybody else out
there who missed it, and who wants it, drop me a note -- if I get enough of
them in the next week or so, I'll repost it, otherwise I'll mail copies.

} (2) Is there a bug in changing the variables "ignore and alwaysignore"
} after initialization? It seems that I can't get the effect of turning
} them off an on and getting the right things to happen (maybe this is an
} RTFM).

Well, first of all, "ignore" is not a variable, it's a command.  You
"turn it off" with the command

	unignore *

and you set ignored headers with (for example)

	ignore Status Received Message-Id ....

Ignore is a command rather than a variable for compatibility with ucbMail.

Second, watch this newsgroup for a discussion of the inadequacies of
"alwaysignore".  The only significant command whose behavior is changed
by setting $alwaysignore is "lpr", which normally prints the headers.

What you probably would rather do is set and unset $show_headers.
Setting $show_headers is sort of the inverse of ignore; you tell mush
which headers you would *like* to see, rather than the ones you don't
want to see.

} (3) Are there any plans in the future to allow the curses (I don't use
} the suntool mode at the moment) mode to deal with 2 folders at once?

Yes.

} I constantly have to refer to mail people have previously sent me (and
} now stored in another folder) or mail I have previously written (saved by
} "record"). I would really like to have it that you could "split" the
} screen in two and deal with both folders at once.

Well, not yet.  In the meantime, you can use the "merge" command to read
the contents of another folder into the current one, and then refer to
whatever messages you like.  You can do something like this:

    merge +other | set other_msgs
    (... do something with messages from +other ...)
    delete $other_msgs
    (... update the original folder or whatever ...)

This makes use of the special property of the "set" command when piped-to.
The message numbers of the merged-in messages are recorded in $other_msgs
so they can easily be deleted as a group.  The only thing you have to
remember is, DO NOT SORT the folder without excluding the merged messages
from the sort!  If you sort, the message numbers recorded in $other_msgs
are no longer valid, and you will have to delete the messages "by hand."
It is best to "delete $other_msgs" as soon as you are done using them.

} -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
} Alan Emtage,                    "It's currently a problem of access to
} McGill University,CANADA        gigabits through punybaud." -  Licklider
-- 
Bart Schaefer           "And if you believe that, you'll believe anything."
                                                            -- DangerMouse
CSNET / Internet                schaefer@cse.ogc.edu
UUCP                            ...{sequent,tektronix,verdix}!ogccse!schaefer

bajan@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Alan Emtage) (07/23/89)

Well, it's nice (finally) to see mush take its place among the other user
mail agents of the world. A couple of questions an comments:

(1) Is there currently any way of feeding mush the header of the mail you
want to send and then have it drop into its usual "sending" mode. The
reason I ask is that I would like to use mush as my mailer when replying
or following up to usenet articles. Rn has a mailer (rnmail I think)
which takes "-h" as an argument which seems to me to mean: read standard
input until EOF and take this as the header. Then start reading from the
terminal again to get the text of the message. I've tried a number of
things but haven't been able to accomplish this.

(2) Is there a bug in changing the variables "ignore and alwaysignore"
after initialization? It seems that I can't get the effect of turning
them off an on and getting the right things to happen (maybe this is an
RTFM).

(3) Are there any plans in the future to allow the curses (I don't use
the suntool mode at the moment) mode to deal with 2 folders at once?
I constantly have to refer to mail people have previously sent me (and
now stored in another folder) or mail I have previously written (saved by
"record"). I would really like to have it that you could "split" the
screen in two and deal with both folders at once.


Mush is the only thing that saves my sanity (I can receive up to
150 new messages every day). Keep the good work up you guys!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alan Emtage,                    "It's currently a problem of access to
McGill University,CANADA        gigabits through punybaud." -  Licklider

INTERNET: bajan@cs.mcgill.ca    UUCP: ...mit-eddie!musocs!bajan
	  listmaster@cs.mcgill.ca
BITNET:	  bajan@musocs.BITNET
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

schaefer@ogccse.ogc.edu (Barton E. Schaefer) (08/13/89)

Yet another 3-month old article reappears, re-dated Jul 22.  I wish that
whatever site is perpetrating this nonsense would get its act together.
To stem a spate of other unnecessary followups, I'll make one.  This is
a drastically abbreviated version of my original followup, which will
probably re-appear in the next day or two the same way this message did
and totally confuse everyone.

In article <1438@opus.cs.mcgill.ca> bajan@opus.UUCP (Alan Emtage) writes:
} 
} (1) Is there currently any way of feeding mush the header of the mail you
} want to send and then have it drop into its usual "sending" mode.

Try the recently-reposted Rnmush script.

} (2) Is there a bug in changing the variables "ignore and alwaysignore"
} after initialization?

"alwaysignore" hasn't done anything useful since about version 6.0
and should always be ignored.

} (3) Are there any plans in the future to allow the curses (I don't use
} the suntool mode at the moment) mode to deal with 2 folders at once?

A workaround is to use

    merge other_folder | set other_folder_list

You can then examine the messages from the other folder and, when finished,
expunge them by

    delete $other_folder_list

Just remember not to do any sorting before deleting, or you will probably
delete some of the wrong messages.  You can create macros to automate the
merge/expunge process.
-- 
Bart Schaefer           "And if you believe that, you'll believe anything."
                                                            -- DangerMouse
CSNET / Internet                schaefer@cse.ogc.edu
UUCP                            ...{sequent,tektronix,verdix}!ogccse!schaefer