Re: gnus with Fastmail.fm account

[Tassilo Horn <tassilo@member.fsf.org>]

Trey Sizemore <trey@fastmail.fm> writes:

Hi Trey,

> The default layout for messages looks a bit ugly for my taste, so I'll
> need to read up on how to change this.

I think you mean

,----[ C-h v gnus-summary-line-format RET ]
| gnus-summary-line-format is a variable defined in `gnus.el'.
| Its value is 
| "%U%R%z%4{%B%} %(%[%4L: %-20,20f%]%) %s\n"
| 
| 
| Documentation:
| *The format specification of the lines in the summary buffer.
| 
| It works along the same lines as a normal formatting string,
| with some simple extensions.
| 
| %N   Article number, left padded with spaces (string)
| %S   Subject (string)
| %s   Subject if it is at the root of a thread, and "" otherwise (string)
| %n   Name of the poster (string)
| %a   Extracted name of the poster (string)
| %A   Extracted address of the poster (string)
| %F   Contents of the From: header (string)
| %f   Contents of the From: or To: headers (string)
| %x   Contents of the Xref: header (string)
| %D   Date of the article (string)
| %d   Date of the article (string) in DD-MMM format
| %o   Date of the article (string) in YYYYMMDD`T'HHMMSS format
| %M   Message-id of the article (string)
| %r   References of the article (string)
| %c   Number of characters in the article (integer)
| %k   Pretty-printed version of the above (string)
|      For example, "1.2k" or "0.4M".
| %L   Number of lines in the article (integer)
| %I   Indentation based on thread level (a string of spaces)
| %B   A complex trn-style thread tree (string)
|      The variables `gnus-sum-thread-*' can be used for customization.
| %T   A string with two possible values: 80 spaces if the article
|      is on thread level two or larger and 0 spaces on level one
| %R   "A" if this article has been replied to, " " otherwise (character)
| %U   Status of this article (character, "R", "K", "-" or " ")
| %[   Opening bracket (character, "[" or "<")
| %]   Closing bracket (character, "]" or ">")
| %>   Spaces of length thread-level (string)
| %<   Spaces of length (- 20 thread-level) (string)
| %i   Article score (number)
| %z   Article zcore (character)
| %t   Number of articles under the current thread (number).
| %e   Whether the thread is empty or not (character).
| %V   Total thread score (number).
| %P   The line number (number).
| %O   Download mark (character).
| %*   If present, indicates desired cursor position
|      (instead of after first colon).
| %u   User defined specifier.  The next character in the format string should
|      be a letter.  Gnus will call the function gnus-user-format-function-X,
|      where X is the letter following %u.  The function will be passed the
|      current header as argument.  The function should return a string, which
|      will be inserted into the summary just like information from any other
|      summary specifier.
| 
| The %U (status), %R (replied) and %z (zcore) specs have to be handled
| with care.  For reasons of efficiency, Gnus will compute what column
| these characters will end up in, and "hard-code" that.  This means that
| it is invalid to have these specs after a variable-length spec.  Well,
| you might not be arrested, but your summary buffer will look strange,
| which is bad enough.
| 
| The smart choice is to have these specs as far to the left as
| possible.
| 
| This restriction may disappear in later versions of Gnus.
| 
| General format specifiers can also be used.
| See Info node `(gnus)Formatting Variables'.
| 
| You can customize this variable.
`----


> I assume I can also do the things I'm used to in mutt such as mark
> messages as important,

Normally I go with

,----[ (info "(gnus)Unread Articles") ]
| `!'
|      Marked as ticked (`gnus-ticked-mark').
| 
|      "Ticked articles" are articles that will remain visible always.  If
|      you see an article that you find interesting, or you want to put
|      off reading it, or replying to it, until sometime later, you'd
|      typically tick it.
`----

for articles I want to reply to later.  To mark an article as important
scoring is the best way, I think.

See

,----[ (info "(gnus)Summary Score Commands") ]
| The score commands that alter score entries do not actually modify
| real score files.  That would be too inefficient.  Gnus maintains a
| cache of previously loaded score files, one of which is considered the
| "current score file alist".  The score commands simply insert entries
| into this list, and upon group exit, this list is saved.
`----


> gpg sign,

Have a look at EasyPGP [1] which is going to replace PGG.

> include citations in the message body easily, etc.?

I use something homebrewn with fortune and posting styles, but maybe
randomsig [2].

> Perhaps someone on the list can point me to a nice, heavily-commented
> .gnus file from which I can learn and pilfer some of the above? ;-)

Mine is at http://www.tsdh.de/configs/.gnus.el, but it's documented
mostly in German.  And the usual warning:  Don't copy stuff you don't
fully understand.

Bye,
Tassilo
__________
[1] http://www.easypg.org/
[2] http://www.backmes.de/scripts+programs/randomsig.el