Re: [bbdb]Give me a break..

[Ronan Waide <waider@stepstone.ie>]

Okay, there are a number of things here.

On July 12, reader@newsguy.com said:
> 
> So upgraded to bbdb-2.2  Still the incessant blabber but worse, if I
> try to search for something by pressing:
> M-x bbdb <RET> and giving a string  I only get:
>  
>   Wrong type argument: stringp, 49
> 

This is a known bug; it's been discussed here on the list twice. Sam
Steingold says he's solved it, but I've not checked as I've been under
some pressure to do real work. The problem is that your .bbdb has only
been upgraded to v4, despite the message that it's upgrading to
v5. Edit the upgraded bbdb file, change the version to 4 (if it's not
there already) and reload it into a new emacs session. It'll be
upgraded to 5 correctly.

> I'm retreating to 2.00 but would like some code that silences bbdbs
> blabbering.
> 
> I don't want to know about mismatched names, mismatched addresses or
> any kind of mismatch.  Nor when or what bbdb is `frobnicating', or any
> other of bbdb's (hyper) activities unless I ask about it.
> 

This is the "loudest" chunk of code where name matches are
concerned. I've annotated it below.

[1]		((and bbdb-quiet-about-name-mismatches old-name)
		 (message "name mismatch: \"%s\" changed to \"%s\""
			  (bbdb-record-name record) name)
		 (sit-for 1))
[2]		((or created-p
		     (if (null old-name)
			 (bbdb-y-or-n-p
			  (format "Assign name \"%s\" to address \"%s\"? "
				  name (car (bbdb-record-net record))))
		       (bbdb-y-or-n-p (format "Change name \"%s\" to \"%s\"? "
					      old-name name))))
		 (setq change-p 'sort)
[3]		 (and old-name bbdb-use-alternate-names
		     (if (bbdb-y-or-n-p (format "Keep name \"%s\" as an AKA? "
						old-name))

[1] If bbdb-quiet-about-name-mismatches is set to t
    then... er. That should be (not bbdb-quiet-blah). That's going
    right into CVS now.

[2] This isn't gagged by any variables. This prompts you to change a
    name for an existing record, or assign a name to a nameless
    record. I'll add a variable to control this.

[3] This is governed by bbdb-use-alternate-names. If that's set to
    't', you won't get prompted about keeping old names.

Now. Which of these messages specifically are you getting?

> I don't want a pause when opening messages as bbdb makes corrections
> it thinks I need.   I want to make that decision.  Bbdb is over active
> in my opinion and a constant source of aggravation with various pauses
> etc.
> 

What corrections?
bbdb/gnus-summary-mark-known-posters set to nil stops bbdb from
marking posters it knows in the summary
buffer. bbdb/gnus-summary-show-bbdb-names set to nil stops bbdb from
tweaking the displayed names in the summary. There's a few other
variables that affect bbdb/gnus interaction, but those are the main
two.

> The defaults should be resounding silence unless a variable like:
> 
> `bbdb-nag-me-until-I-would-rather-set-my-hair-on-fire-than-start-bbdb'
> 
> Is set to `t' by the user.
> 

Not so. Some of bbdb's work is time-intensive - particularly the
initial parsing if you've got a large bbdb. One of the basic
principles of user interaction I adhere to in my own work is to not
leave the user staring at a blank screen with no indication of what's
going on. Hence I have no problem with bbdb telling me it's doing
something on loading. That's the only time you'll see the
"frobnicating" message.

I'll see how much work would be involved in having a global variable,
say bbdb-silent-running, to shut down all informational
messages. Defaulting to unset, of course.

Cheers,
Waider.
-- 
Ronan Waide, Technology Consultant

StepStone, #102 Block 4, Harcourt Centre, Harcourt Rd, Dublin 2, Ireland
Tel: +353 (0)1 2944077  Fax: +353 (0)1 2944078  http://www.stepstone.ie/