Add another "nndraft" type ?

Add another "nndraft" type ?

[Xavier Maillard]

Hello,

I would like  to know if something like  templates would interest people
here.

In  fact I  often type  (repetitive) messages  (like  meeting reminders,
...) to send to people.

What I  currently miss  is a  way to keep  a copy  of such  message that
would be the base for other messages.  I call that template but I am not
sure of the terminology.

Is there something planned  for this ? What I am thinking  of, is to add
template as another nndraft (like draft) unexpirable, etc...

I would be pleased to red your opinions about that.

Regards,
-- 
Xavier Maillard
7 rue Jeanne Jugan, 51100 Reims, France
phone: +33 3 26 77 02 21, mobile: +33 6 68 04 64 37
email: zedek@gnu-rox.org

Re: Add another "nndraft" type ?

[Kai Grossjohann]

Xavier Maillard <zedek@gnu-rox.org> writes:

> What I  currently miss  is a  way to keep  a copy  of such  message that
> would be the base for other messages.  I call that template but I am not
> sure of the terminology.

Perhaps you can "just" use abbrevs?  I think that's a low-tech
mechanism that's underused.

Or keep each template in a file and use C-x i.

Or use skeleton to generate them.

Kai

Re: Add another "nndraft" type ?

[David S Goldberg]

>>>>> On Thu, 03 Jun 2004 18:33:22 +0200, Kai Grossjohann <kai@emptydomain.de> said:

> Xavier Maillard <zedek@gnu-rox.org> writes:
>> What I  currently miss  is a  way to keep  a copy  of such  message that
>> would be the base for other messages.  I call that template but I am not
>> sure of the terminology.

> Perhaps you can "just" use abbrevs?  I think that's a low-tech
> mechanism that's underused.

This can be painful if you have a lot of them, especially if some are
similar and you mix up which you want.

> Or keep each template in a file and use C-x i.

For a while I had a couple of nndraft articles that held initial
contents of things like scheduled outage messages and the like.  I
would B C them and then D E the copy.  That got old the first time I
accidentally ran D E on the main copy, though :-)

> Or use skeleton to generate them.

Not sure what you mean by skeleton, but eventually I discovered
tempo.el which is how I handle these things now.

-- 
Dave Goldberg
david.goldberg6@verizon.net

Re: Add another "nndraft" type ?

[Xavier Maillard]

On  3 Jun 2004, David S. Goldberg wrote:

> > > > > > On  Thu,  03  Jun   2004  18:33:22  +0200,  Kai  Grossjohann
> > > > > > <kai@emptydomain.de> said:
> 
> > Xavier Maillard <zedek@gnu-rox.org> writes:
> > > What I currently miss is a way to keep a copy of such message that
> > > would be the  base for other messages. I call  that template but I
> > > am not sure of the terminology.
> 
> > Perhaps you can "just" use abbrevs?  I think that's a low-tech
> > mechanism that's underused.
> 
> This can be painful if you have a lot of them, especially if some are
> similar and you mix up which you want.
> 
> > Or keep each template in a file and use C-x i.
> 
> For a while I had a couple of nndraft articles that held initial
> contents of things like scheduled outage messages and the like.  I
> would B C them and then D E the copy.  That got old the first time I
> accidentally ran D E on the main copy, though :-)
> 
> > Or use skeleton to generate them.
> 
> Not sure what you mean by skeleton, but eventually I discovered
> tempo.el which is how I handle these things now.

Any good example ? :)
-- 
Xavier MAILLARD (GnuPG: 1024D/1E028EA5)
EmacsOS user (http://emacsfr.org)
APRIL (http://www.april.org)

Re: Add another "nndraft" type ?

[David S Goldberg]

I've stripped this down horribly but I think it gives the right idea
(and it works as is).  After setting up a template like this you just

M-x tempo-template-outage-notice

And it prompts for the elements it needs, fills them in and inserts
the whole thing at point.  The doc string for tempo-define-template
describes the different format possibilities in detail.  I haven't
tried any but what's here.

(tempo-define-template "outage-notice" '((P "date: " outdate)
					 (P "time: " outtime)
					 (P "machine:" outsubj) "
NOTICE:

On "
					 (s outdate)
					 " at "
					 (s outtime)
					 ", "
					 (s outsubj)
					 " will be taken off line
for maintenance.  Send email to the help center if you have questions."))

-- 
Dave Goldberg
david.goldberg6@verizon.net

Re: Add another "nndraft" type ?

[Kai Grossjohann]

David S Goldberg <david.goldberg6@verizon.net> writes:

>>>>>> On Thu, 03 Jun 2004 18:33:22 +0200, Kai Grossjohann <kai@emptydomain.de> said:
>
>> Or keep each template in a file and use C-x i.
>
> For a while I had a couple of nndraft articles that held initial
> contents of things like scheduled outage messages and the like.  I
> would B C them and then D E the copy.  That got old the first time I
> accidentally ran D E on the main copy, though :-)

Yeah, but with the C-x i solution you can prevent accidental deletes
by making the directory and files read-only ;-)

>> Or use skeleton to generate them.
>
> Not sure what you mean by skeleton, but eventually I discovered
> tempo.el which is how I handle these things now.

There are functions define-skeleton and skeleton-insert.  This is
similar to tempo, so I think you don't need to switch.

Kai

Re: Add another "nndraft" type ?

[Xavier Maillard]

On  3 Jun 2004, Kai Grossjohann wrote:

> Xavier Maillard <zedek@gnu-rox.org> writes:
> 
> > What I currently miss  is a way to keep a copy  of such message that
> > would be the base for other  messages. I call that template but I am
> > not sure of the terminology.
> 
> Perhaps you can "just" use abbrevs?  I think that's a low-tech
> mechanism that's underused.

Indeed.
 
> Or keep each template in a file and use C-x i.
> 
> Or use skeleton to generate them.

Well all your solutions can work  but I'd rather dispose of some kind of
template support.

Anyway, I would  be glad if you could  show me how to use any  or all of
this solutions ;) 

Regards,
-- 
  "GNU is my religion"

.O.  Xavier Maillard 
..O   Reims - France 
OOO  +33 6 68 04 64 37