From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Bastien Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Moving from Thunderbird to Emacs for mail and calendar Date: Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:55:44 +0800 Message-ID: <87ljkou8r3.fsf@bzg.ath.cx> References: <4AA6E9D5.9050800@chaosphere.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1252464988 1170 80.91.229.12 (9 Sep 2009 02:56:28 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2009 02:56:28 +0000 (UTC) Cc: GNU Emacs List To: Jeff Clough Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Sep 09 04:56:20 2009 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 1MlDM4-0002k4-5G for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:56:20 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:57039 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1MlDM3-0000ha-F6 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:56:19 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1MlDLg-0000fd-2X for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:55:56 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1MlDLb-0000cc-IJ for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:55:55 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=42860 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1MlDLb-0000cX-D9 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:55:51 -0400 Original-Received: from mail-bw0-f220.google.com ([209.85.218.220]:49650) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1MlDLa-00045K-Pr for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:55:51 -0400 Original-Received: by bwz20 with SMTP id 20so1067306bwz.42 for ; Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:55:48 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:from:to:cc:subject :in-reply-to:references:user-agent:date:message-id:mime-version :content-type; bh=TOqZa8Nv1VqB2ju5NDSQURLpAlDmPLjqtyRrEhE+s1c=; b=D0eVvyzJZph6fZ2FX1pmtDrQ5OMMO+3dLsujs/uImc9XfNZ55Y+mBKzUWaCZa9+1Be p30fw1dFCOpG/N7Ks2NC7yvOQ8RVkmCBioGcLojpJu+ZzxxVb5Ar0ujSVMJqt1ImEQab tSa9kSvArdq9SZy/Zn8cYXmjYZgGdFesZT9mc= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=from:to:cc:subject:in-reply-to:references:user-agent:date :message-id:mime-version:content-type; b=eZz3XI4MIK9H8Jt40yEd6L0btZQ8k4rN1/fFfUXjPAf62SlGFMd0t9JUbtBMkJtS/9 pIYBko4ujPzhfcncnhdABb03LvwqvbLbbPbucCpIywvOG0rADFWP5RzWG+d9qMLyIijD SS7WJkExK6PJ3ZBbaYFxxMQLi+7vmTPFd7niA= Original-Received: by 10.223.132.204 with SMTP id c12mr6364871fat.32.1252464946404; Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:55:46 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: from bzg.ath.cx (men75-10-88-166-32-222.fbx.proxad.net [88.166.32.222]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id y15sm849922fkd.49.2009.09.08.19.55.45 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:55:45 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <4AA6E9D5.9050800@chaosphere.com> (Jeff Clough's message of "Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:33:41 -0400") User-Agent: Gnus/5.110011 (No Gnus v0.11) Emacs/23.1 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 2) 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:67974 Archived-At: Jeff Clough writes: > Okay, so I'm seriously considering switching from Thunderbird to Emacs > (under Windows XP) for my mail and calendar needs, but I haven't used > Emacs for either of these purposes in so long I don't know if it's > feasible, nor am I certain which modes are "best". I'm hoping that some > of you can point me in the right direction. I'd "just do it" as a test, > but I'd rather not go through a crap ton of hassle and problems only to > hear later "You should not have used foo mode for that, bar mode is what > you want". Check Gnus and Org. http://gnus.org/manual.html http://orgmode.org/ > 1. It needs to work on Windows XP without having to install a > unix/posix environment like Cygwin. I *am* willing to install discrete > utilities if necessary (if Emacs doesn't do POP on its own and needs > some external program to do it, for instance). AFAIK Emacs + Gnus works fine under Windows. > 2. I have just under seven thousand messages in various folders (mbox > files) that I'll be wanting to keep, so it needs to not choke and die > when confronted with "many" messages. It's okay. > 3. I need to have my calendar appointments either in my face at all > times (I can live with it being in a split window or a new frame I just > leave open) or have the alarms/reminders be insistent and arbitrarily > settable (remind me 15 minutes in advance for this appointment and 30 > minutes before this one). I have a lot of appointments and a very bad > memory for these sorts of things. Org is the tool you want, it's highly configurable. > 4. Reading HTML messages should be possible, but my needs here are > minimal. I'll settle for what Lynx looked like circa 1995. I just need > the message to be legible. Gnus can be configured to read HTML messages. > The things I'm hoping to get from moving to Emacs: > > 1. The ability to stay in Emacs for more of my tasks and use its > editing commands which are now so ingrained into my hands there's no > hope of going back. You will enjoy more Emacs-power after the switch. > 2. The ability to search for messages and have the results be what I > want. That means finding all the messages with my search string and > *not* finding messages that don't have my search string. I thought this > is what "Search" implied, but Thunderbird has its own ideas. Maybe that's the hardest part of your request. Under GNU/Linux, mairix (http://www.rpcurnow.force9.co.uk/mairix/) makes it very easy to search and find messages and Gnus has an interface to it (http://www.gnus.org/manual/gnus_43.html#SEC43). But mairix requires Cygwin to run under Windows. You can also check Mew (http://www.mew.org) -- it's another mail reader for Emacs, with many more integrated search facilities than Gnus. > 3. The ability to use the keyboard for marking messages as read, > deleting messages, moving them around, etc. A lot of this stuff is > relegated to the mouse and switching from mouse to keyboard and back is > getting really special annoying. Gnus handles all this. > Things I don't need: > > 1. I don't use newsgroups or to-do lists. Don't use these functions, then. > 2. I don't care about in-line attachments and would prefer not to see > them anyway. As long as I can pull them out of the message and save > them somewhere sane, that works for me. Same. > 3. Bonus points if I can diddle a link in an email message and have > Emacs bring it up in Firefox, but I'm not married to it. Feasible. HTH, -- Bastien