[alot] announcing v0.2 aka. "robot santa"

[alot] announcing v0.2 aka. "robot santa"

[Patrick Totzke]

Hi everyone!

I have just released version 0.2 of my terminal GUI `alot`.
You can grab a tarball here [0].

There are some halfway working solutions for long standing open feature requests
(e.g. gnupg integration, messages search..) lying around. However, I decided against
working on those and instead put some effort into cleaning up and writing proper
API documentation [1].

Current features include (quoting the README):

 * modular and command prompt driven interface
 * tab completion and usage help for all commands
 * contacts completion using customizable `abook` lookups
 * user configurable keyboard maps
 * spawn terminals for asynchronous editing of mails
 * theming, optionally in 2, 16 or 256 colours
 * tag specific theming and tag string translation
 * (python) hooks to react on events and do custom formating
 * python shell for introspection
 * forward/reply/group-reply of emails
 * printing/piping of mails and threads
 * multiple accounts for sending mails via sendmail
 * notification popups with priorities
 * database manager that manages a write queue to the notmuch index

Beware the (admittedly short list of) FAQ [2] and don't hesitate
to send feedback, bug reports, feature or pull requests via the projects
github page [3].

Thanks goes to Sebastian Spaeth for continuous support with the python bindings to
libnotmuch, Ruben Pollan, Luke Macken, Justus Winter and Jaime Huerta-Cepas for
contributing code and Daniel Kreischer, Björn Bewersdorff and Amadeusz Żołnowski
for valuable feedback and bug reports.

Cheers,
/p

[0]: https://github.com/pazz/alot/tarball/0.2
[1]: http://alot.rtfd.org
[2]: https://github.com/pazz/alot/blob/master/FAQ.md
[3]: https://github.com/pazz/alot

Re: [alot] announcing v0.2 aka. "robot santa"

[Jameson Graef Rollins]

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On Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:55:14 +0000, Patrick Totzke <patricktotzke@googlemail.com> wrote:
> I have just released version 0.2 of my terminal GUI `alot`.
> You can grab a tarball here [0].

Hi, Patrick.  Congratulations on the new release.  I don't personally
use alot, but I've played around with it a bit and it seems quite nice.
It's certainly the most mature notmuch UI out there other than the emacs
interface, and it's probably the best solution for vim users, until the
vim interface matures.

It would be nice to get alot into Debian.  To that end I've started to
put together debian packaging, based on git-buildpackage, in the
"debian" branch of my alot repo:

git://finestructure.net/alot [debian]

You can build the package by running "git buildpackage -us -uc" from
within the debian branch (this will create an upstream tarball based on
the master branch if it doesn't already exist, and then build the deb).

It's mostly there, but we still need a couple of things (figure out all
of the dependencies, make a man page, file an ITP bug, etc.).  If
someone else is interested in picking this up (particularly someone
interested in actually using the program) feel free to have at it.
Otherwise I'll follow through on these things as time permits.

jamie.

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Re: [alot] announcing v0.2 aka. "robot santa"

[Jameson Graef Rollins]

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Hey, Patrick.  I'm guessing this isn't actually an alot issue, but when
I start up alot I get the following message to the terminal:

/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/zope/__init__.py:3: UserWarning: Module argparse was already imported from /usr/lib/python2.7/argparse.pyc, but /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages is being added to sys.path
  import pkg_resources

Any idea what's going on there?

jamie.

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Re: [alot] announcing v0.2 aka. "robot santa"

[Adrian Perez]

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Hello to all,

On Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:55:14 +0000, Patrick Totzke <patricktotzke@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone!
> 
> I have just released version 0.2 of my terminal GUI `alot`.
> You can grab a tarball here [0].

As a Vim user, I have been been actively following the Git repository
for alot, and I would like to thank you for the effort you are putting
in it: it has been stedily improving, and at some point in the near
future I plan to switch away from the Emacs interface :)

Thanks for the hard work, and congratulation for the release!

Cheers,

-- 
Adrian Perez <aperez@igalia.com> - Sent from my toaster
Igalia - Free Software Engineering

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Re: [alot] announcing v0.2 aka. "robot santa"

[Patrick Totzke]

Thx Adrian & Jamie!

It would be great to get it into Debian, yes. I will have a look at Debian packaging if we
don't find a more capable volunteer in the next few weeks.
Thanks for your initial work on this.

While we're at it: I heard that there are some build scripts for Arch and Gentoo around.
If you authored one of these step forward: I'd gladly include them to the git repo.


Quoting Jameson Graef Rollins (2011-12-12 00:14:10)
>Hey, Patrick.  I'm guessing this isn't actually an alot issue, but when
>I start up alot I get the following message to the terminal:
>
>/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/zope/__init__.py:3: UserWarning: Module argparse was already imported from /usr/lib/python2.7/argparse.pyc, but /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages is being added to sys.path
>  import pkg_resources
>
>Any idea what's going on there?

I have seen this before yes. It seems to be a problem with the python distribution on
debian. Apparently, you have two different versions of the argparse module installed: As
of 2.7, argparse is part of the standard lib, but debian ships a separate package
python-argparse.

What happens is that I import argparse to alot, which happens to pick the one from
"/usr/lib/python2.7/argparse.pyc". Now zope (a 2nd order dependency) explicitly imports
"/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/argparse.pyc" and warns that its overloading this
namespace.

Also see https://bugs.launchpad.net/debian/+source/distribute/+bug/810019 for a
similar problem with python-distribute, particularly comment #9.

Best,
/p

Re: [alot] announcing v0.2 aka. "robot santa"

[Jameson Graef Rollins]

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On Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:38:46 +0000, Patrick Totzke <patricktotzke@googlemail.com> wrote:
> I have seen this before yes. It seems to be a problem with the python distribution on
> debian. Apparently, you have two different versions of the argparse module installed: As
> of 2.7, argparse is part of the standard lib, but debian ships a separate package
> python-argparse.

I just filed a Debian bug against python-argparse:

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=651962

jamie.


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[alot] on Arch Linux

[Philipp Überbacher]

Hi there,
I'm a new notmuch/alot user, this is my first mail since I switched from
sup. Yes, switched. notmuch/alot works for me well enough now to be
usable.

I run Arch Linux. Here's some information for fellow Archers:
PKGBUILD for alot-git: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=54955
Should work just fine. If you want to help debug alot, change
_gitname=master to the name of the branch, build and install as usual.

You should currently avoid the alot PKGBUILD from AUR, it also points to
git and has some other mistakes. I'll see to it that it gets deleted and
maybe put a PKGBUILD with the release-version into its place.

Another little trap:
Arch doesn't supply a mailcap file, alot needs it for all those funky
html mails. As a solution until alot handles those mails better:
create ~/.mailcap
put the following line into it:
text/html; /usr/bin/lynx -dump '%s'; copiousoutput; description=HTML
Text; nametemplate=%s.html

Hope that helps,
thanks Patrick for writing alot, fixing bugs and helping with the
config.

Regards,
Philipp

Re: [alot] on Arch Linux

[Patrick Totzke]

Hi Philipp,

Quoting Philipp Überbacher (2011-12-14 22:30:22)
>I run Arch Linux. Here's some information for fellow Archers:
>PKGBUILD for alot-git: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=54955
>Should work just fine. If you want to help debug alot, change
>_gitname=master to the name of the branch, build and install as usual.

Great! Thanks for this.
Regarding your bug reports: Can anybody else running Arch confirm the problems Philipp has?
In particular that logging doesn't work and this issue:
https://github.com/pazz/alot/issues/156 ? 
Because I don't know how to reproduce this and having no log makes debugging difficult..

>Another little trap:
>Arch doesn't supply a mailcap file, alot needs it for all those funky
>html mails. As a solution until alot handles those mails better:

Well, it also makes sense to define some handlers for pdf/images and so on to be able to
easily open attachments. I consider mailcap the right way to do this (until someone comes
and shows me a better solution), so I don't plan on removing the necessity of the user
defining his mailcap. One would have to have one even for mutt. I'm
totally surprised by Arch not shipping a default mailcap at all..
I will add some info on mailcap to the FAQ.

Best,
/p

Re: [alot] on Arch Linux

[Mark Foxwell]

Quoting Patrick Totzke (2011-12-16 09:06:44)
>Regarding your bug reports: Can anybody else running Arch confirm the problems Philipp has?
>In particular that logging doesn't work and this issue:
>https://github.com/pazz/alot/issues/156 ? 
>Because I don't know how to reproduce this and having no log makes debugging difficult..

I can confirm that I don't get any debug logging - have write perms and
space but no file created. 

However, I don't get any error messages when exiting.

My slight difference is that I'm running parabola (completely libre arch
linux) so my python2 package comes from parabola rather than arch. I
will investigate what the differences are.

>I'm totally surprised by Arch not shipping a default mailcap at all..

A default arch installation doesn't contain X let alone any programs for
viewing images, pdf etc. So shipping a default mailcap would not make
any sense nor could ever be workable. Arch isn't really a distro for
people who want things to 'just work' but more for tinkerers and those
that know what they want and how to do it. 

--
Mark

Re: [alot] on Arch Linux

[Patrick Totzke]

Quoting Mark Foxwell (2011-12-16 10:05:12)
>Quoting Patrick Totzke (2011-12-16 09:06:44)
>>Regarding your bug reports: Can anybody else running Arch confirm the problems Philipp has?
>>In particular that logging doesn't work and this issue:
>>https://github.com/pazz/alot/issues/156 ? 
>>Because I don't know how to reproduce this and having no log makes debugging difficult..
>
>I can confirm that I don't get any debug logging - have write perms and
>space but no file created. 

Hmm.. Is anybody using Arch willing to look into this?
Or can anybody suggest a painless and quick way for me to set up an Arch installation in a Virtualbox or so to be able to reproduce this?
/p

Re: [alot] on Arch Linux

[Philipp Überbacher]

Quoting Patrick Totzke (2011-12-16 11:28:37)
>Quoting Mark Foxwell (2011-12-16 10:05:12)
>>Quoting Patrick Totzke (2011-12-16 09:06:44)
>>>Regarding your bug reports: Can anybody else running Arch confirm the problems Philipp has?
>>>In particular that logging doesn't work and this issue:
>>>https://github.com/pazz/alot/issues/156 ? 
>>>Because I don't know how to reproduce this and having no log makes debugging difficult..
>>
>>I can confirm that I don't get any debug logging - have write perms and
>>space but no file created. 
>
>Hmm.. Is anybody using Arch willing to look into this?
>Or can anybody suggest a painless and quick way for me to set up an Arch installation in a Virtualbox or so to be able to reproduce this?
>/p

Maybe the easiest way is a live-CD, a normal Arch installation may take
a little if you do it the first time.
Live-CD versions for Arch come and go, so it's not that easy to find 
them, however, I dug some up:
http://archbang.org/
https://godane.wordpress.com/ ?

I hope you can just run the iso in some virtual machine. It's likely not
as up-to-date as the average arch users system, but I guess you could
update it.

Re: [alot] on Arch Linux

[Kazuo Teramoto]

On 2011-12-16T08:28:37, Patrick Totzke wrote:
>
>Hmm.. Is anybody using Arch willing to look into this?  Or can anybody
>suggest a painless and quick way for me to set up an Arch installation
>in a Virtualbox or so to be able to reproduce this?
>

I'm using Arch and I have debugging log. I'm using the 'testing' (a
place where packages is put before entering the official repo).

But neither python2 or twisted is on it, so I have the usual packages.

Patrick if you need help on installing Arch on a VM poke me on irc. I
can create a virtualbox image for you.

Re: [alot] on Arch Linux

[Patrick Totzke]

Quoting Kazuo Teramoto (2011-12-16 12:37:37)
>On 2011-12-16T08:28:37, Patrick Totzke wrote:
>>
>>Hmm.. Is anybody using Arch willing to look into this?  Or can anybody
>>suggest a painless and quick way for me to set up an Arch installation
>>in a Virtualbox or so to be able to reproduce this?
>>
>
>I'm using Arch and I have debugging log. I'm using the 'testing' (a
>place where packages is put before entering the official repo).

Justus just confirmed that this logging issue also occurs on debian wheezy.
https://github.com/pazz/alot/issues/156#issuecomment-3176618
I'm running ubuntu 11.04 (and see debug logs).

>But neither python2 or twisted is on it, so I have the usual packages.
I don't understand what you mean here.

>Patrick if you need help on installing Arch on a VM poke me on irc. I
>can create a virtualbox image for you.
Thanks. I will come back to this if i need to actually run Arch for debugging.
much appreciated.

/p

Re: [alot] announcing v0.2 aka. "robot santa"

[Patrick Totzke]

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Quoting Jameson Graef Rollins (2011-12-12 00:12:04)
>It's mostly there, but we still need a couple of things (figure out all
>of the dependencies, make a man page...

Hi Jamie,
I took the time to write a first draft for a manpage (attached).
This file is content only, the formating for the man-system
is yet to be done.

Thanks to some very helpful feedback I have been able to spot and fix a few rather nasty
bugs. I am going to make a minor bugfix release in the next few days.

Note that I moved the bleeding-edge code to branch "testing" and
am trying to keep "master" as stable branch.

Best,
/p


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NAME
     alot - mail user agent for the notmuch mail system

SYNOPSIS
     alot [-h] [-c CONFIGFILE] [-n NOTMUCHCONFIGFILE] [-C {1,16,256}] [-r] [-p DB_PATH]
     [-d {debug,info,warning,error}] [-l LOGFILE] [-v] [command]

DESCRIPTION
      A terminal-based interface for the notmuch mail system.
      It features a modular and command prompt driven interface to provide a full mail
      user agent experience.

      In all views, arrows, page-up/down, `j`,`k` and `Space` can be used to move the
      focus.  `Escape` cancels prompts and `Enter` selects. Hit `:` at any time and type
      in commands to the prompt. Usage information on any command can be listed by typing
      `help YOURCOMMAND` to the prompt; The keybindings for the current mode are listet
      upon pressing `?`.

OPTIONS
     -h, --help
          show usage help message and exit

     -c CONFIGFILE
          Use given config file instead of ~/.config/alot/config

     -n NOTMUCHCONFIGFILE
          Use alternate config file for the notmuch system instead of the default
          ~/.notmuchrc

     -C {1,16,256}
          terminal colour mode

     -r
          open db in read only mode

     -p DB_PATH
          path to notmuch index. Overides the default read from NOTMUCHCONFIGFILE

     -d {debug,info,warning,error}
          debug level used in combination with -l

     -l LOGFILE
          logfile

     -v, --version
          show program's version number and exit


FILES
     ~/.config/alot/config
          configuration file for the alot interface

     ~/.notmuchrc
          configuration file for the notmuch mail system

     /etc/mailcap
          The system wide mailcap file. See mailcap(5) for further details.

     ~/.mailcap
          Per user malcap file. See mailcap(5) for further details.


BUGS
     Alot is a fairly new project, so expect misbehaviour. Bugs can be reported via the
     issue tracker on the projecs github page (https://github.com/pazz/alot).

AUTHOR
     Patrick Totzke <patricktotzke at googlemail dot com>

SEE ALSO
     notmuch(1)

Re: [alot] announcing v0.2 aka. "robot santa"

[Patrick Totzke]

Hi again,
I have merged the packaging stuff to upstream master and moved the debian directory to
/packaging.

An include file for help2man as well as a generated man page for the upcomming release
0.21 can be found in /docs/man.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do,
/p