From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Matt Price Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: starting an external command from emacs Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:48:33 -0500 Organization: History Department, University of Toronto Message-ID: <1226548113.8767.1562.camel@localhost> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1226563169 22923 80.91.229.12 (13 Nov 2008 07:59:29 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:59:29 +0000 (UTC) Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org To: Dan Espen Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Nov 13 09:00:29 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1L0X7s-0001WV-Af for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:00:28 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:45160 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1L0X6k-0007Dd-HQ for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:59:18 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1L0TCH-00040c-T7 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:48:45 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1L0TCH-00040Q-9y for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:48:45 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=34810 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1L0TCH-00040N-6O for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:48:45 -0500 Original-Received: from bureau61.ns.utoronto.ca ([128.100.132.151]:39222) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1L0TCG-0007rt-S7 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:48:45 -0500 Original-Received: from anarres.mercey.org (CPE001d7e1d5798-CM0014f8cd1c4c.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com [173.32.83.31]) (authenticated bits=0) by bureau61.ns.utoronto.ca (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id mAD3mcJ5029359 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:48:39 -0500 Original-Received: by anarres.mercey.org (Postfix, from userid 1000) id E983A120352; Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:48:35 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: Evolution 2.24.1 X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-Mailman-Approved-At: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:57:49 -0500 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:59722 Archived-At: On Wed, 2008-11-12 at 18:08 -0500, Dan Espen wrote: > Matt Price writes: > > > hi, > > > > i'm a not-especially-technical person who uses emacs as a > > straightforward text editor; in fact i'm experimenting with living > > inside emacs most of the time on my main laptop, largely to eliminate > > distractions while i'm writing. however, some significant fraction of > > the stuff i write is intended to be emailed away. I'd like to do two > > things: > > > > (1) write a function that takes the contents of the current buffer and > > inserts it into a message; > > (2) use an external script to query an already-existing contacts > > database (for me it's evolution or gmail), and pass that address on to > > the to-header of the resultant message. > > > > (2) seemed difficult to me. so what i'm trying right now is to write a > > function that invokes mutt with an address string, then, within mutt, > > use emacsclient as my editor, post-mode as my mode, and insert the text > > into the message body. This is what i have so far: > > Have you looked at VM, MH-E, rmail, GNUS? > (Existing Emacs mail interfaces.) hi dan, i did look briefly at all of these, but two issues for me: - all of them feel a little daunting - one of my problems right now is that my contacts info is spread out in far too many places already -- mutt, evolution, and gmail, not to mention my unsyncable palm. i'd really like to be able to query these databases directly -- mutt has various scripts that let you do this, which is why i was drawn to it. these scripts generally produce a series of lines as output, one email address per line. if i could write a function that ran these ecternal scripts and took their output as a list, from which the user could choose one as a to address... then i'd certainly be willingt o use any of the already-existant emacs mail readers. the thing is, of course, that i'm really NOT looking to read my mail -- i'm trying to avoid making that any easier -- all i want to do is send my mail, and be able to use my contacts database from inside emacs. what woul you suggest i do? thanks, matt -- Matt Price matt.price@utoronto.ca