Re: [VM] Mainly: How do you use virtual folders every day? and other questions

[Kyle Farrell]

Just to add my $0.02 on using virtual folders. I tend to use a lot of
virtual folders at work. I'm subscribed to a ton of internal email
lists. I bind vm-switch-to-folder to a handy key (I use "`"), then
finding a folder is simply ` followed by C-s and a few characters of
the folder name. By creating a folder for various teams I work with
(which may be one or more mailing lists), this makes it easy to get
through mail associated with the team.

What is missing for me is a summary view of all folders. Something
that could show each folder and the number of unread messages similar
to Outlook's summary (sorry! I shouldn't mention that product). Seems
like this could be some sort of speedbar integration.

Not saying what I do is ideal. Posting here has proved to me that
other's often have better solutions!

-Kyle

[Uday Reddy]

Kyle Farrell writes:

> lists. I bind vm-switch-to-folder to a handy key (I use "`"), then
> finding a folder is simply ` followed by C-s and a few characters of
> the folder name.

Interesting. I never knew about the C-s trick in all these years! I use
<SPC> for completion, and <UP>/<DOWN> for scrolling through minibuffer
history. But I should learn to use C-s, which seems more efficient.

> What is missing for me is a summary view of all folders. Something
> that could show each folder and the number of unread messages similar
> to Outlook's summary (sorry! I shouldn't mention that product). Seems
> like this could be some sort of speedbar integration.

VM actually has a "folders-summary" feature. Unfortunately, it is tied to
something called "berkeley-db". I never had berkeley-db and, so, never used
it. Arik Mitschang has been working on decoupling the folders-summary from
berkeley-db. Some of his work can be found in this branch:

https://code.launchpad.net/~akwm/vm/folders-summary-experimental

Arik, are you online?

Cheers,
Uday

[Arik Mitschang]

> > What is missing for me is a summary view of all folders. Something
> > that could show each folder and the number of unread messages similar
> > to Outlook's summary (sorry! I shouldn't mention that product). Seems
> > like this could be some sort of speedbar integration.
>
> VM actually has a "folders-summary" feature. Unfortunately, it is tied to
> something called "berkeley-db". I never had berkeley-db and, so, never used
> it. Arik Mitschang has been working on decoupling the folders-summary from
> berkeley-db. Some of his work can be found in this branch:
>
> https://code.launchpad.net/~akwm/vm/folders-summary-experimental
>
> Arik, are you online?

Yeah, I haven't worked on that in quite a while, but remember it
mostly working. I don't use the feature any more, but used to actually
keep it open in a third buffer (that, summary and preview). This was
handy since our telescope operations sent out regular status emails I
didn't want cluttering my inbox, but wanted to ensure they were coming
in at a normal frequency (different types of status mails went
automatically to different aptly named folders).

I'm not sure why the berkeley-DB was originally chosen, but I just
opted for a simple character separated plain text format. It also has
a info node. Let me know what you think if you try it out. Even though
I don't use it these days, its probably a good feature to have
included in VM (seems a lot of other modern clients have this, and
folks moving from them, or between them, may find it particularly
useful)

Cheers,
-Arik