Re: gnus & nnmaildir

[lee <lee@yun.yagibdah.de>]

Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:

>> My recommendation is to use gnus' native nnml format
>> rather than maildir and set up some (fancy) mail
>> splitting. Example for nnml:
>>
>> (setq gnus-select-method '(nnml "yun"
>> (nnml-use-compressed-files ".bz2")
>> (nnml-compressed-files-size-threshold 65535)))
>
> Yes, I can recommend nnml as well!
>
> What I like about it is that it uses one file for each
> mail, and those are put in your user filesystem in
> directories that mimic the groups, so if you need to
> apply shell tools (extract information that way) it is
> all very clear how it works.

Having these groups is one of the big advantages over mutt.  A big
disadvantage is that nnml is understood by gnus exclusively.  In case
you want/need to be able to use different MUAs, maildir or imap work
much better for that.

There's also posting styles like:


(setq gnus-parameters
      `(
	("mail\\..*"
	 (gnus-show-threads nil)
	 (gnus-use-scoring nil)
	 (gnus-article-sort-functions '(gnus-article-sort-by-number))
	 (display . [not expire])
	 (gcc-self . "mail.sent")
	 (gnus-summary-line-format
	  ":%U%R%z%I(%5k) %(%[%-23,23A%]%) %11&user-date; '%s\n")
	 )
	;;
	("mail\\.lists\\.emacs\\..*"
	 (posting-style
	  (organization "my virtual residence")
	  (signature (version))))
	))


> Splitting is a wonderful feature that makes mail as
> sweet as news. Here is an example how it is done:
>
> (setq nnmail-split-methods

It didn't take long before I found out that I need nnmail-split-fancy
--- I don't remember why, though I'd recomment to look into fancy
splitting right away.  Here's an excerpt:


(setq nnmail-split-methods 'nnmail-split-fancy)
;; order DOES matter
;; (| split split split ... GROUP)
;; (& split split split ... GROUP)
;; split = (HEADER REGEXP GROUP)
;; If the split is `nil', it is ignored.
(setq nnmail-split-fancy '(|
			   ("List-Id"
			    "\\<help-gnu-emacs\\.gnu\\.org\\>"
			    "mail.lists.emacs.help")

			   ("List-Id"
			    "\\<gnu-emacs-sources\\.gnu\\.org\\>"
			    "mail.lists.emacs.sources")

			   ("List-Id"
			    "\\<beginners\\.perl\\.org\\>"
			    "mail.lists.perl.beginners")


			   ;; mailing lists above

			   (any
			    ".*undisclosed.recipient.*"
			    "mail.junk")

			   ("Content-Type"
			    "text/html.*"
			    "mail.junk")

			   ("Content-Type"
			    "multipart/alternative.*"
			    "mail.junk")

			   "mail.0-incoming"))


It takes quite a bit of getting used to and some trial and error to
figure it out.  Once you get the hang of it it's easy.  I guess it's
easier when you know elisp because things start to make sense; I learned
it only later.

> Splitting makes it possible to be on a lot of listbots
> but always with the same mail; and the inbox doesn't
> get flooded still, or it does, but organized and not in
> your face unless told so.

With mutt, I used an exim filter file.  Gnus is rather slow with
splitting and sometimes with building a summary buffer --- compared to
mutt, which is really fast.

> And you can keep - what do they call it? "family?" -
> such mails can have a distinct directory (or group) as
> well.

Like I have "mail.per.<some person>" ...

>> You can, of course, stick to maildir and use it with
>> gnus, which saves you the conversion. I converted and
>> am not looking back to mutt; gnus is just too good :)
>
> Gnus is fantastic! It is just the best thing ever. I
> thought Emacs was great, now I know its better than
> that.
>
> You can just dodge the backend completely and focus on
> the client.

And you can read pretty much everything you want as mail ...  With mutt,
I was using emacs as editor anyway.  Over the years, I kept looking from
time to time if there's anything better.  There never was until I tried
gnus.

> The only thing I don't like with Gnus is the way it
> looks with the default options. I put a lot of work
> into that. I know Gnus is 100% programmable, but first
> impressions shouldn't be underestimated. For me, that
> was just educational and fun to change. But I fear lots
> of people won't be attracted to put that much time into
> it. I have a small fan page for Gnus, with a couple
> screenshots how I think it should look:
>
> dump - http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/gnus/dumps/new/group.png
> page - http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/gnus/index.html

Which font do you use?  It looks good on the screenshots.

> Perhaps instead of saying this I should put together a
> Gnus theme? Is that something that people do?

Hm, I didn't make a theme.  I'm using no window decorations for emacs
frames and green on black with the Source Code Pro font.

> I crosspost this to gnu.emacs.gnus, this perhaps we can discuss there,
> if anyone has ideas (though Gnus is certainly not off-topic on
> gnu.emacs.help).

Or ding.gnus.org?  gnu.emacs.gnus doesn't look like a mailing list but
like an uncategorized forum, and there's no way to subscribe?

Perhaps we should put things on a gnus wiki, or make a category/pages
for gnus on the emacs wiki?

> [...]
> Some people say they don't like writing and reading mails - let me
> tell you, if I couldn't type, and had to use Outlook, I would *detest*
> mails!

Emails are the most important and most convenient way of communication
to me.  Outlook is unsuited to deal with more than perhaps a handful of
emails per day, if that.  Besides, there isn't any really good MUA for
windoze.

> Tools, tools, tools... If you are in a beautiful, cool garden
> with the best shovel in the world, working on your digging skills,
> digging for ten hours straight is paradise.

Only if you love to dig.

> I don't know if I should bow because I am so grateful
> to Linux, Emacs, Gnus, and Usenet, *or* if I should
> pound myself on the chest for finding them, and nothing
> short of making them a part of me! Just unbelievable
> stuff.

You can always make contributions.  The problem is that usually no one
really cares.


-- 
GNU Emacs 24.4.50.2 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2014-08-17 on yun.yagibdah.de