Re: Just shoot me now

[Richard Riley <rileyrg@googlemail.com>]

Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> writes:

> On Wed, Dec 22 2010, Tommy Kelly wrote:
>
>> Andreas Schwab <schwab@linux-m68k.org> writes:
>>
>>> Because [ and ] are not word characters.  See
>>> nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table.
>>
>> Thanks Andreas. Unfortunately that 6,500 line variable, consisting
>> mostly of pairs of parens enclosing numbers, is as clear as mud :-)
> [...]
>> 5. Begin building more simple splits then stumble on
>> "\\[stuff\\]". Splitting isn't as keen on \\[ as it is on, say, \\. .
>> 6. Told that nnmail-split-fancy-syntax-table is the clue
>> 7. C-h v on that variable. Look. Puke. Look again.
>> 8. Google for "emacs lisp syntax table"
>> 9. Fall pretty much at the first fence on being told that a syntax table
>> is a "char-table" about which I know very little
>> 10. Start reading about what a char-table is
>> 11. Consider reading about "aref" and "aset" since part of the basic
>> description of char-tables mentions those
>> 12. Stop and think "Seriously!? All this Just To Split My Mail!?"
>
> Right, much too complicated.  The solution is described in the manual:
>
> ,----[ (info "(gnus)Fancy Mail Splitting") ]
> |    Normally, VALUE in these splits must match a complete _word_
> | according to the fundamental mode syntax table.  In other words, all
> | VALUE's will be implicitly surrounded by `\<...\>' markers, which are
> | word delimiters.  Therefore, if you use the following split, for
> | example,
> | 
> |      (any "joe" "joemail")
> | 
> | messages sent from `joedavis@foo.org' will normally not be filed in
> | `joemail'.  If you want to alter this behavior, you can use any of the
> | following three ways:
> | 
> |   1. You can set the `nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words' variable
> |      to non-`nil' in order to ignore word boundaries and instead the
> |      match becomes more like a grep.  This variable controls whether
> |      partial words are matched during fancy splitting.  The default
> |      value is `nil'.
> | 
> |      Note that it influences all VALUE's in your split rules.
> | 
> |   2. VALUE beginning with `.*' ignores word boundaries in front of a
> |      word.  Similarly, if VALUE ends with `.*', word boundaries in the
> |      rear of a word will be ignored.  For example, the VALUE
> |      `"@example\\.com"' does not match `foo@example.com' but
> |      `".*@example\\.com"' does.
> | 
> |   3. You can set the INVERT-PARTIAL flag in your split rules of the
> |      `(FIELD VALUE ...)' types, aforementioned in this section.  If the
> |      flag is set, word boundaries on both sides of a word are ignored
> |      even if `nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words' is `nil'.
> |      Contrarily, if the flag is set, word boundaries are not ignored
> |      even if `nnmail-split-fancy-match-partial-words' is non-`nil'.
> |      (New in Gnus 5.10.7)
> `----
>
> Bye, Reiner.

So the question is really "why is this missed by everyone who trys
splitting"?

Can it be simplified? Moved? 

Is there an nnimap-split-fancy-match... equivalent? 

Point 3 is non  parseable by anyone without a degree in elisp.

By, R.