How to use Notmuch with Neovim?

How to use Notmuch with Neovim?

[Ralph Seichter]

Is anybody here using Notmuch in combination with an up-to-date version
of Neovim? I have experimented with notmuch-vim [1], but without success.
Given that the latest changes to this plugin were made three years ago
and that the plugin targets classic Vim, I am looking for a possible
alternative.

[1] https://github.com/felipec/notmuch-vim

Notmuch is the last holdout requiring me to use Emacs, and it is
bothering me. Ending up with strings like "5j" instead of moving the
cursor as intended is becoming a bit embarassing. ;-)

-Ralph

Re: How to use Notmuch with Neovim?

[Emmanuel Beffara]

Hello,

De Ralph Seichter le 28/09/2024 à 15:00:
> Is anybody here using Notmuch in combination with an up-to-date version
> of Neovim? I have experimented with notmuch-vim [1], but without success.
> Given that the latest changes to this plugin were made three years ago
> and that the plugin targets classic Vim, I am looking for a possible
> alternative.
> 
> [1] https://github.com/felipec/notmuch-vim
> 
> Notmuch is the last holdout requiring me to use Emacs, and it is
> bothering me. Ending up with strings like "5j" instead of moving the
> cursor as intended is becoming a bit embarassing. ;-)

Notmuch certainly does not require you to use Emacs, although it is not always
obvious when reading this mailing list, since it frequently mixes discussions
related to the Notmuch library and CLI with discussions of the Emacs UI
(probably because there is a tight link between the two, the main developers
being Emacs users).

I have been a (Neo)vim user for many years before discovering Notmuch. I never
used notmuch-vim regularly (the mandatory Ruby dependency has been problematic
for me) but I always used other interfaces, with (Neo)vim as editor :

- Bower <https://github.com/wangp/bower> is my main mail UI since quite some
  time, not very customisable but lightweight, efficient and very stable.

- Neomutt <https://neomutt.org/> has Notmuch integration, it is not as fluid
  as native clients for searches (spaces in queries are a pain to enter) but
  it gives the full power of Mutt for accessing other boxes and servers, doing
  surgical operations like removing attachments and such, etc.

- Alot <https://github.com/pazz/alot> was my tool of choice before Bower, more
  flexible but the UI had some issues because of the Urwid toolkit (very long
  threads were problematic).

I would be happy to learn about experiences with other clients !

-- 
Emmanuel\r

Re: How to use Notmuch with Neovim?

[Ralph Seichter]

* Emmanuel Beffara:

> Notmuch certainly does not require you to use Emacs [...]

Sorry, my wording was certainly not ideal. I am aware that Emacs is not
a requirement for Notmuch. I am also using the Notmuch binary in various
custom scripts.

Emacs has been part of my mail workflow because I found it generally
agreeable as a "MUA wrapper" around Notmuch. I have simply grown weary
of using both (Neo)vim and Emacs. The frequent mental context switches
between the diverging concepts and keybindings of both text editors are
slowing me down.

> I never used notmuch-vim regularly (the mandatory Ruby dependency has
> been problematic for me) but I always used other interfaces, with
> (Neo)vim as editor

The Ruby bindings are holding me back as well. Or rather, the lack of
Ruby support in Gentoo Linux's Notmuch package.

I tried both Alot and Neomutt many months ago, but I was not happy with
either of them. Maybe I should give them another go. Bower is new to me,
but I will certainly look into it. Thanks, Emmanuel.

-Ralph

Re: How to use Notmuch with Neovim?

[inwit]

If I may chime in, I use evil inside emacs to alleviate some of the finger-memory burdens you mention (and because modal editing is THE way, of course). But, more importantly, I use aerc as my main email driver: it works fine with notmuch, it's quite configurable and you can easily use $EDITOR to write your emails (currently, I use emacs+evil, but I've been happily using neovim for over a year). In case it helps.

Re: How to use Notmuch with Neovim?

[Ralph Seichter]

* inwit:

> I use aerc as my main email driver: it works fine with notmuch, it's
> quite configurable and you can easily use $EDITOR to write your emails

Blimey! I only wanted to give "aerc" a brief glance to begin with, and
now two hours have flown by. Aerc is looking mighty fine already,
running snugly in TMUX.

Aerc's integration with Notmuch is very good, making me feel right at
home. Customisation is done using text files (always a plus) and I have
already tweaked aerc to my habits. Also, aerc is damn snappy and feels
more responsive to me than Notmuch in Emacs. Finally, the icing on the
cake, Neovim runs a-OK in aerc's internal terminal.

That's one hell of a recommendation, inwit. Thank you! I think that aerc
may be just what I was looking for.

-Ralph

Re: How to use Notmuch with Neovim?

[inwit]

On 29/09/2024, 06:37, Ralph Seichter wrote:
> That's one hell of a recommendation, inwit. Thank you! I think that aerc
> may be just what I was looking for.
Happy to help! :) The notmuch backend in aerc still has some rough
edges, and the community is nice and helpful, so please do share any
thoughts in the ml or in the irc channel, and do send patches over if
you feel like!

Re: How to use Notmuch with Neovim?

[Ralph Seichter]

* inwit:

> please do share any thoughts in the ml or in the irc channel, and do
> send patches over if you feel like!

I already tried subscribing to the aerc mailing list, but whoever
configured the ML service for sourcehut forgot to create the necessary
DNS records for IPv6. :-( Antispam measures on my MX don't like that, so
I will need to spend time creating exceptions for "sr.ht". Sigh.

-Ralph