[alot] announcing v0.3.3

[alot] announcing v0.3.3

[Patrick Totzke]

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Good news everyone!

I have just tagged alot v0.3.3; You can get a tarball here [0].
This version comes with lots of bugfixes and minor ui tweaks, most notably the
ability to interpret command sequences and sequences of keypresses.

It is now possible to overwrite default bindings which obsoletes the assumption
that all bindings are given in the users config. Therefore, we don't write a
config stub on startup if no user config file exists.

Detailed usage updates since v0.3.2:
* interpret (semicolon separated) sequences of commands
* new input handling: allow for binding sequences of keypresses
* add ability to overwrite default bindings
* remove tempfiles (email drafts) as late as possible for better error recovery
* confirmation prompt when closing unsent envelopes
* prevent accidental double sendout of envelopes
* fix focus placement after tagcommand on last entry in search buffer
* new command 'buffer' that can directly jump to buffer with given number
* extra: sup theme
* fix tagstring sorting in taglist buffer
* update docs
* lots of internal cleanups
* search buffer theming fixes (alignment of threadline parts)
* fix help box theming
* comma-separate virtual "Tags" header added before printing mails
* fix pipeto command for interactive (foreground) shell commands
* handle possible errors occurring while saving mails
* indicate (yet uninterpreted) input queue in the status bar
* handle python exceptions that occur during 'call' command

Thanks goes to those who contributed:
$ git shortlog -s -n 0.3.2...|tail -n +2
     5  Kazuo Teramoto
     3  Simon Chopin

.. and everyone who send feedback!

As always, don't hesitate to file bug reports, feature or pull requests via the
projects github page [1].

Cheers,
/p

[0]: https://github.com/pazz/alot/tarball/0.3.3
[1]: https://github.com/pazz/alot

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Re: [alot] announcing v0.3.3

[Sepp Tannhuber]

Dear all,

I have been looking for a usable notmuch client for some time. Now I found the alot client
which seems to be the best for my needs. I have used mutt-kz so far. And here are some
questions:
1. As vi user I alway type gg/G to jump to the top/bottom. Is there a command that I can
   configure this way? I have not found a jump to top/bottom command in the manual.

2. Mutt has a nice feature, the Attach: pseudo header. It can be used to attach files from
   within the editor. I use this small vi macro to attach files:
     " mutt: insert attachment with ranger

     fun! RangerMuttAttach()
     if filereadable('/tmp/chosendir')
     silent !ranger --choosefiles=/tmp/chosenfiles --choosedir=/tmp/chosendir "$(cat /tmp/chosendir)"
     else
     silent !ranger --choosefiles=/tmp/chosenfiles --choosedir=/tmp/chosendir
     endif
     if filereadable('/tmp/chosenfiles')
     call append(3, map(readfile('/tmp/chosenfiles'), '"Attach: ".escape(v:val," \t\\")'))
     call system('rm /tmp/chosenfiles')
     endif
     redraw!
     endfun
     map <C-a> :call RangerMuttAttach()<CR>
     imap <C-a> <ESC>:call RangerMuttAttach()<CR>a
   I would like to use the same with alot. Is it possible?


3. I have followed the instructions to use abook for contact completion. I have used abook with mutt as well.
   So I have put these two lines in my config:
     [[[abook]]]
       type = abook
   But I did not find a way how to use it. Can anybody tell me?

Thanks in advance
Joseph

Re: [alot] announcing v0.3.3

[Patrick Totzke]

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Hi Sepp, welcome to alot :)

Quoting Sepp Tannhuber (2012-09-10 19:55:00)
> 1. As vi user I alway type gg/G to jump to the top/bottom. Is there a command that I can
>    configure this way? I have not found a jump to top/bottom command in the manual.
Short Answer:
This is not yet possible with the current design, no.
It is something i'd also like to see though and i have already a few ideas ho to do this.

Long version/dev info:
First of all, i only recently added the ability to interpret "gg" (or other multi-key strokes)
at all.. so thats done.
Now both for thread and search mode we use a toplevel `urwid.ListBox` widget iirc,
and those do not directly support "focus topmost line". But they do allow to
move the focus to some index and so implementing such a `MoveCommand` should not be hard.
One reason I have not bothered to implement this so far is that in the long run,
I want to have urwid Tree widgets as top level widgets in thread buffers.
This would also allow "move to next sibling/parent" and so on.

> 2. Mutt has a nice feature, the Attach: pseudo header. It can be used to attach files from
>    within the editor. I use this small vi macro to attach files:
>      " mutt: insert attachment with ranger
> 
>      fun! RangerMuttAttach()
>      if filereadable('/tmp/chosendir')
>      silent !ranger --choosefiles=/tmp/chosenfiles --choosedir=/tmp/chosendir "$(cat /tmp/chosendir)"
>      else
>      silent !ranger --choosefiles=/tmp/chosenfiles --choosedir=/tmp/chosendir
>      endif
>      if filereadable('/tmp/chosenfiles')
>      call append(3, map(readfile('/tmp/chosenfiles'), '"Attach: ".escape(v:val,"     \\")'))
>      call system('rm /tmp/chosenfiles')
>      endif
>      redraw!
>      endfun
>      map <C-a> :call RangerMuttAttach()<CR>
>      imap <C-a> <ESC>:call RangerMuttAttach()<CR>a
>    I would like to use the same with alot. Is it possible?

Nice idea!
So you can of course use this method to set an "Attach" header, but as of now
alot will not interpret and remove this when reading the edited text.
I guess one would also want that in the other direction if one really uses this feature:
When re-editing the message body, the editable headers part of the text should include
an Attach header line that lists the current attachments..

> 3. I have followed the instructions to use abook for contact completion. I have used abook with mutt as well.
>    So I have put these two lines in my config:
>      [[[abook]]]
>        type = abook
>    But I did not find a way how to use it. Can anybody tell me?

It will be used for tabcompletion when you compose a mesage.
When you see the "to>" prompt, type in some prefix of a (realname part of a)
contact from abook and hit <tab>.

Cheers,
/p

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Re: [alot] announcing v0.3.3

[Sepp Tannhuber]

Hi Patrick,

thank you for answering and for this really good mail client!


> One reason I have not bothered to implement this so far is that in the long run,
> I want to have urwid Tree widgets as top level widgets in thread buffers.
> This would also allow "move to next sibling/parent" and so on.
I did not know that it would be so complicated. But nice to hear that development
is going on.

> So you can of course use this method to set an "Attach" header, but as of now
> alot will not interpret and remove this when reading the edited text.
Exactly!

> I guess one would also want that in the other direction if one really uses this feature:

> When re-editing the message body, the editable headers part of the text should include
> an Attach header line that lists the current attachments..
Even mutt is not able to do this. And I have not missed it. The possibility to attach files this
way is much more interesting.

> When you see the "to>" prompt, type in some prefix of a (realname part of a)
> contact from abook and hit <tab>.
This was my assumption. But it is not working here. Obviously I make a mistake. Here is my
config:
-- BEGIN ~/.config/alot/config --
theme = solarized_dark
editor_cmd = 'vim +/^$ "+normal j" "+:set textwidth=80" "+:set ft=mail"'

[accounts]

    [[work]]
        realname = Joseph Tannhuber
        address = jtannhuber@work.de
        signature = ~/.signature
        sendmail_command = msmtp --account=work -t
        sent_box = maildir:///home/sepp/Maildir/Sent
        draft_box = maildir:///home/sepp/Maildir/Drafts
        [[[abook]]]
            type = abook
-- END --
Is there anything missing?


By the way: Is it possible to set the X11 urgency hint flag when new mail arrives? In principle
one can use the visual bell in the terminal. Then alot must only invoke a shell command:
  echo -e "\b"

Best regards
Joseph

Re: [alot] announcing v0.3.3

[Patrick Totzke]

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Quoting Sepp Tannhuber (2012-09-11 17:59:12)
> Hi Patrick,
> 
> thank you for answering and for this really good mail client!
pleasure :)

> > One reason I have not bothered to implement this so far is that in the long run,
> > I want to have urwid Tree widgets as top level widgets in thread buffers.
> > This would also allow "move to next sibling/parent" and so on.
> I did not know that it would be so complicated. But nice to hear that development
> is going on.
Yea, trees in urwid are a bit messed up atm. alot's thread buffer uses its own
archaic widget layout, which is eventually to be replaced.

> > So you can of course use this method to set an "Attach" header, but as of now
> > alot will not interpret and remove this when reading the edited text.
> Exactly!

I think this will not so hard to do. Could you open up a feature request issue
on github for this?

> > When you see the "to>" prompt, type in some prefix of a (realname part of a)
> > contact from abook and hit <tab>.
> This was my assumption. But it is not working here. Obviously I make a mistake. Here is my
> config:
> -- BEGIN ~/.config/alot/config --
> theme = solarized_dark
> editor_cmd = 'vim +/^$ "+normal j" "+:set textwidth=80" "+:set ft=mail"'
> 
> [accounts]
> 
>     [[work]]
>         realname = Joseph Tannhuber
>         address = jtannhuber@work.de
>         signature = ~/.signature
>         sendmail_command = msmtp --account=work -t
>         sent_box = maildir:///home/sepp/Maildir/Sent
>         draft_box = maildir:///home/sepp/Maildir/Drafts
>         [[[abook]]]
>             type = abook
> -- END --
> Is there anything missing?

No, that's what I use as well.
Note that this variant assumes your contact file is ~/.abook/addressbook. I'm not aware of format
issues for different abook versions so far. Also note that this will complete case-sensitive
strings of the format "Firstname Lastname <address>".

To debug this you can replay this introspect session and see how far you get.
Start alots python shell (pyshell command), then:

        >>> from alot.settings import settings
        >>> settings.get_addressbooks()
        [<alot.addressbooks.MatchSdtoutAddressbook object at 0x2890a10>, <alot.addressbooks.AbookAddressBook object at 0x2776650>]
        >>> settings.get_addressbooks()[0]
        <alot.addressbooks.MatchSdtoutAddressbook object at 0x2890a10>
        >>> A=settings.get_addressbooks()[0]
        >>> A.get_contacts()
        [... CONTACT TUPLES HERE...]

Hope this helps. Otherwise don't hesitate to open a bug report on github.

> By the way: Is it possible to set the X11 urgency hint flag when new mail arrives? In principle
> one can use the visual bell in the terminal. Then alot must only invoke a shell command:
>   echo -e "\b"

Well, alot does not pull your mails itself, so has no means of knowing when new mail arrives.
I personally use a mail indicator widget I wrote for my window manager that periodically
checks the notmuch index for new mail: http://awesome.naquadah.org/wiki/Notmuch_mail_integration

Alot can of course fire shell commands. What it is lacking at the moment is the ability to periodically
fire custom (alot-)commands. This feature would not be hard to implement, but so far I did not bother
to do so as I considered mail-fetching not part of alots responsibility.
But you're not the first one to want this, so I guess it'd be worth it.

Cheers,
/p

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Re: [alot] announcing v0.3.3

[Christophe-Marie Duquesne]

On Sun, Sep 9, 2012 at 5:34 PM, Patrick Totzke <patricktotzke@gmail.com> wrote:
> Good news everyone!

I could not help but read the rest of your announcement in the voice
of professor Farnsworth.

Re: [alot] announcing v0.3.3

[Sepp Tannhuber]

Hi Patrick,                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                              
my abook is working now. I don't know why it did not yesterday. Probably it was                                               
not a bug but rather something stupid with my config.                                                                         
                                                                                                                              
> Could you open up a feature request issue on github for this?                                                               
Yes.                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                              
> This feature would not be hard to implement, but so far I did not bother                                                    
> to do so as I considered mail-fetching not part of alots responsibility.                                                    
I would like to have a shortcut to jump quickly to a window that has the urgency                                              
flag set. This is why I asked for that feature. But I agree with you. A simple                                                
script can do it as well.                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                              
However I'd like to raise another question. I have configured two mail accounts.                                              
It seems that I cannot choose between them when I reply to a message. Can I?                                                  
Hopefully this was my last question.                                                                                          
                                                                                                                              
Thanks alot                                                                                                                   
Joseph       

Re: [alot] announcing v0.3.3

[Joseph Tannhuber]

Dear Patrick

> You can, but its not so comfortable at the moment: just use
> `set From OtherAccount Realname <other@address.foo>`
Ok, let's try it right now. I think it would be the best to determine the sender
account from the header of the answered mail. But I have no idea if it is
possible. 

Thank you
Joseph

Re: [alot] announcing v0.3.3

[Sepp Tannhuber]

Quoting Sepp Tannhuber (2012-09-12 16:17:45)
> my abook is working now. I don't know why it did not yesterday. Probably it was
> not a bug but rather something stupid with my config.
Neither bug nor stupid config! It did not work because the completion is case
sensitive. Is it possible to change it?

Cheers
Joseph