A newbie writes...
Gareth McCaughan
like it might be rather nicer, but it's hard to tell, what with the
documentation being so *very* out of date...
So, I have some daft questions.
1. Does there exist, anywhere, documentation on virtual folders? If
necessary, I'll trawl through the source code and find what I can
and can't do; but if I don't have to I'd rather not.
2. VM seems to be able to cope with several different folder formats.
Does it matter much what I use for storing my mail in? I have a
bunch of BABYL folders which I'm currently using for Rmail; if I
switch to VM, is there any advantage in converting them to something
else?
3. Is VM sufficiently better than RMAIL that it's worth my while
moving? Why?
--
Gareth McCaughan Dept. of Pure Mathematics & Mathematical Statistics,
gj...@pmms.cam.ac.uk Cambridge University, England. [Research student]
Yeechang Lee
|I've been using Rmail for a while, and have just discovered VM. It
|looks like it might be rather nicer, but it's hard to tell, what with
|the documentation being so *very* out of date...
Take an hour or two to read through vm-vars.el--it'll tell you
(almost) all you need to know.
|3. Is VM sufficiently better than RMAIL that it's worth my while
| moving? Why?
For someone coming from Pine (ugh), VM's support for Berkeley-style
mail folders was an absolute necessity. With a little tweaking I find
it does _everything_ I need to handle the 300 messages a day I get.
--
http://www.columbia.edu/~ylee/ _. icbm://40.83.-73.91/
__./ |
/___. |___
PERTH------>\*./
Mike Northam
gareth> I've been using Rmail for a while, and have just discovered VM. It
gareth> looks like it might be rather nicer, but it's hard to tell, what
gareth> with the documentation being so *very* out of date...
Kyle has yet to put out a plea for volunteers to assist, so I'm sure he's
on top of it.
gareth> 1. Does there exist, anywhere, documentation on virtual folders? If
gareth> necessary, I'll trawl through the source code and find what I can
gareth> and can't do; but if I don't have to I'd rather not.
Reading the file vm-vars.el will elicit information on just about anything
that is settable by the user. The info pages may be out of date, but this
file is maintained admirably. I won't repeat here the listing from that
file on vm-virtual-folder-alist but that should get you on your way.
gareth> 2. VM seems to be able to cope with several different folder formats.
gareth> Does it matter much what I use for storing my mail in? I have a
gareth> bunch of BABYL folders which I'm currently using for Rmail; if I
gareth> switch to VM, is there any advantage in converting them to something
gareth> else?
VM can read both types of folders, I believe, so there wouldn't be a need
to convert.
gareth> 3. Is VM sufficiently better than RMAIL that it's worth my while
gareth> moving? Why?
It doesn't use BABYL format. That means that I can use other standard
Unix tools, etc. on the mail folders. If something untoward should happen
(like a disk error, etc.) I can edit the folder directly in emacs and
repair (most of) the damage.
Call me old fashioned, but I like to be able to read my files if I have
to. This one fact alone makes VM infinitely better than RMAIL, IMHO.
Plus, VM is so much part of the emacs infrastructure these days that it is
hardly conceivable that someone would write a major package that would
interact with it and not provide some level of support for VM. Of course
on this point your mileage will definitely vary.
On the other side of the fence, if you're changing your mail reading
system anyway, you might look at using Gnus (ding). I don't use this for
mail myself, being more than happy with VM, but there seems to be active
discussion these days in gnu.emacs.gnus about reading mail using that
tool. Might be worth a look. I sure like it for reading news.
--
Mike Northam, Shorter Software Solutions - mb...@ssd.intel.com
on contract to Intel Corp., System Technology & Integration Group,
Server System Products Division
MS CO3-210 - (503) 677-5569
Gareth McCaughan
> gareth> I've been using Rmail for a while, and have just discovered VM. It
> gareth> looks like it might be rather nicer, but it's hard to tell, what
> gareth> with the documentation being so *very* out of date...
>
> Kyle has yet to put out a plea for volunteers to assist, so I'm sure he's
> on top of it.
I hope so ...
> gareth> 1. Does there exist, anywhere, documentation on virtual folders? If
> gareth> necessary, I'll trawl through the source code and find what I can
> gareth> and can't do; but if I don't have to I'd rather not.
>
> Reading the file vm-vars.el will elicit information on just about anything
> that is settable by the user. The info pages may be out of date, but this
> file is maintained admirably. I won't repeat here the listing from that
> file on vm-virtual-folder-alist but that should get you on your way.
<shame> Now why didn't I look there *first*? Thanks very much; the
documentation there is really very good indeed.
> VM can read both types of folders, I believe, so there wouldn't be a need
> to convert.
Certainly no *need*. I was wondering whether maybe there are advantages
to formats other than BABYL, apart from being understood by non-Emacs
things.
> On the other side of the fence, if you're changing your mail reading
> system anyway, you might look at using Gnus (ding). I don't use this for
> mail myself, being more than happy with VM, but there seems to be active
> discussion these days in gnu.emacs.gnus about reading mail using that
> tool. Might be worth a look. I sure like it for reading news.
I am indeed looking at (ding) Gnus. I'm more or less convinced that I
want to use it instead of trn for reading news; I'm not so sure that
it's the best thing for mail.
Kyle Jones
> Mike Northam writes:
> > VM can read both types of folders, I believe, so there wouldn't be a need
> > to convert.
>
> Certainly no *need*. I was wondering whether maybe there are
> advantages to formats other than BABYL, apart from being
> understood by non-Emacs things.
I don't know of any other advantanges. Readability and
accesibility via normal UNIX tool was the motivating reason for
using the From_ format. I would have hacked From_ into RMAIL
instead of writing VM if RMAIL wasn't so permeated with BABYLisms.
Michael Deindl
[....]
Gareth> I am indeed looking at (ding) Gnus. I'm more or less convinced
Gareth> that I want to use it instead of trn for reading news; I'm not
Gareth> so sure that it's the best thing for mail.
I use Gnus-5 (formerly known as (ding) Gnus) as my newsreader. I also
use its mail-reading capability for reading mailing-lists. For this
purpose it's great.
However, I prefer VM for my normal mailing.
Have a nice day,
Michael
--
Standard disclaimer: My oppinions are my own. I don't speak for IBM.
And the weather is not my fault either.
At work: mde...@vnet.ibm.com or ipnet(deindl)
At home: mde...@eisbaer.bb.bawue.de --- PGP encrypted mails prefered
(finger for key)
--
Standard disclaimer: My oppinions are my own. I don't speak for IBM.
And the weather is not my fault either.
At work: mde...@vnet.ibm.com or ipnet(deindl)
At home: mde...@eisbaer.bb.bawue.de --- PGP encrypted mails prefered
(finger for key)