How to define this summary-line-format?

How to define this summary-line-format?

[leon]

Hi there,

I started using gnus hours ago so please forgive my ignorance. 

This screenshot (http://my.gnus.org/node/316) is absolutely amazing.
I'm trying to mimic one but have some difficulties.

1. vertical dashed separation line (`|' doesn't look dashed)
2. abbreviated date (i.e. "Mo 13")
3. very nice threading format

Any ideas?
-- 
Cheers

Re: How to define this summary-line-format?

[Sébastien Kirche]

At 12:11 on nov 7 2005, leon said :

> Hi there,
> 
> I started using gnus hours ago so please forgive my ignorance. 
> 
> This screenshot (http://my.gnus.org/node/316) is absolutely amazing.
> I'm trying to mimic one but have some difficulties.
> 
> 1. vertical dashed separation line (`|' doesn't look dashed)

It is not only a modeline format, it also uses gnus buffers
configuration (look at the docstring of gnus-buffer-configuration)

For example I use the following to have the frame splitted horizontally
while reading a message with the message body at the bottom and the
group summary on the top :

    (gnus-add-configuration
     '(article
       (vertical 1.0 (summary 13 point)
                 (article 1.0) )))

> 2. abbreviated date (i.e. "Mo 13")

With a custom date format :
;; affichage de la date en relatif
(setq gnus-user-date-format-alist
	  '(((gnus-seconds-today) . "     %k:%M") 				;dans la journée =      14:39
		((+ 86400 (gnus-seconds-today)) . "hier %k:%M")     ;hier            = hier 14:39
		((+ 604800 (gnus-seconds-today)) . "%a  %k:%M")     ;dans la semaine = sam  14:39
		((gnus-seconds-month) . "%a  %d")     				;ce mois         = sam  28
		((gnus-seconds-year) . "%b %d")       				;durant l'année  = mai  28
		(t . "%b %d '%y")))                   				;le reste        = mai  28 '05

The formats are those of format-time-string and should use your locals
to write the days and months names in your language.

> 3. very nice threading format

You need to set the use of the thread display in the mode line format,
for example :
(setq gnus-summary-line-format 
      (concat
       "%*%5{%U%R%z%}"
       "%4{|%}"
       "%2{%-10&user-date;%}"
       "%4{|%}"
       "%2{ %}%(%-24,24f"
       "%4{|%}"
       "%2{%5i%}"
       "%4{|%}"
       "%2{%6k %}%)"
       "%4{|%}"
       "%2{ %}%3{%B%}%1{%s%}\n")) ;%B = threads display

The threads nice characters can be obtained by changing the default
display; It works nice under GNU/Linux and OSX (with atsui support), I
have not tested recently with Windows.

	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "\x490b3 ") ; "> "
	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root "\x490b3 ")                    ; "> "
	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent "  ")                 ; ""
	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other "\x4903c\x49020\x490fb ") ; "+-> "
	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical "\x49022")                       ; "| "
	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "\x49034\x49020\x490fb ")	; "\\-> "

Some variants :
	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "\x4912f ")                          ; "> "
	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root "\x490f8 ")                    ; "> "
	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root "\x4912f ")                    ; "> "
	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent "\x4912e ")                 ; ""
	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent "\x490b3 ")                 ; ""
	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "\x490b0\x49020\x490fa ")   ; "\\-> "

> Any ideas?

Let's try what I wrote and look at the docstrings of the different
variables and function to know the format specifiers to be able to build
your own display.

HTH.
-- 
Sébastien Kirche

Re: How to define this summary-line-format?

[leon]

Sébastien Kirche <sebastien.kirche.no@spam.free.fr.invalid> writes:

> At 12:11 on nov 7 2005, leon said :
>
> It is not only a modeline format, it also uses gnus buffers
> configuration (look at the docstring of gnus-buffer-configuration)
>
> For example I use the following to have the frame splitted horizontally
> while reading a message with the message body at the bottom and the
> group summary on the top :
>
>     (gnus-add-configuration
>      '(article
>        (vertical 1.0 (summary 13 point)
>                  (article 1.0) )))

I mean the dashed lines in the summary window. Those separate date & name
etc. I tried using '|' but it looked like continuous line. I really like
the dashed line.

>
>
> With a custom date format :
> ;; affichage de la date en relatif
> (setq gnus-user-date-format-alist
> 	  '(((gnus-seconds-today) . "     %k:%M") 				;dans la journée =      14:39
> 		((+ 86400 (gnus-seconds-today)) . "hier %k:%M")     ;hier            = hier 14:39
> 		((+ 604800 (gnus-seconds-today)) . "%a  %k:%M")     ;dans la semaine = sam  14:39
> 		((gnus-seconds-month) . "%a  %d")     				;ce mois         = sam  28
> 		((gnus-seconds-year) . "%b %d")       				;durant l'année  = mai  28
> 		(t . "%b %d '%y")))                   				;le reste        = mai  28 '05
>

Get this error: "symbol's value as variable is void: gnus-face-5"
My knowledge of gnus doesn't allow me to debug this. 

> The formats are those of format-time-string and should use your locals
> to write the days and months names in your language.
>
>
> You need to set the use of the thread display in the mode line format,
> for example :
> (setq gnus-summary-line-format 
>       (concat
>        "%*%5{%U%R%z%}"
>        "%4{|%}"
>        "%2{%-10&user-date;%}"
>        "%4{|%}"
>        "%2{ %}%(%-24,24f"
>        "%4{|%}"
>        "%2{%5i%}"
>        "%4{|%}"
>        "%2{%6k %}%)"
>        "%4{|%}"
>        "%2{ %}%3{%B%}%1{%s%}\n")) ;%B = threads display
>
> The threads nice characters can be obtained by changing the default
> display; It works nice under GNU/Linux and OSX (with atsui support), I
> have not tested recently with Windows.
>
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "\x490b3 ") ; "> "
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root "\x490b3 ")                    ; "> "
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent "  ")                 ; ""
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other "\x4903c\x49020\x490fb ") ; "+-> "
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical "\x49022")                       ; "| "
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "\x49034\x49020\x490fb ")	; "\\-> "
>
> Some variants :
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "\x4912f ")                          ; "> "
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root "\x490f8 ")                    ; "> "
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root "\x4912f ")                    ; "> "
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent "\x4912e ")                 ; ""
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent "\x490b3 ")                 ; ""
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "\x490b0\x49020\x490fa ")   ; "\\-> "
>

I highly appreciate your help! However I got some weird boxes instead
of the beautiful threading. The screenshot is here 
(http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/sl392/gnus.png). 

I'm running gnus 5.10.6 from emacs-snapshot-gtk in debian
unstable. It's actually 22.0.50.1. I think it should have utf-8
support. Maybe I'm missing something in the configure. Any ideas?

>
> Let's try what I wrote and look at the docstrings of the different
> variables and function to know the format specifiers to be able to build
> your own display.
>
> HTH.
> -- 
> Sébastien Kirche

Again, thanks very much

-- 
Cheers

Re: How to define this summary-line-format?

[Sébastien Kirche]

At 18:11 on nov 7 2005, leon said :

> I mean the dashed lines in the summary window. Those separate date & I
> name etc. I tried using '|' but it looked like continuous line. I
> really like the dashed line.

Oh, then those lines come from the "%4{|%}" parts of my
gnus-summary-line-format. Basically it makes gnus place a pipe char
between the fields.
I suppose that the dash style is due to some characters that are bigger
than the pipe and it makes Emacs adapt the line height.

> > With a custom date format :
> > ;; affichage de la date en relatif
> > (setq gnus-user-date-format-alist
> > 	  '(((gnus-seconds-today) . " %k:%M") ;dans la journée = 14:39
> > 		((+ 86400 (gnus-seconds-today)) . "hier %k:%M")
> > 		;hier = hier 14:39
> > 		((+ 604800 (gnus-seconds-today)) . "%a %k:%M")
> > 		;dans la semaine = sam 14:39
> > 		((gnus-seconds-month) . "%a %d") ;ce mois = sam 28
> > 		((gnus-seconds-year) . "%b %d") ;durant l'année = mai 28 (t
> > 		. "%b %d '%y"))) ;le reste = mai 28 '05
> > 
> 
> Get this error: "symbol's value as variable is void: gnus-face-5"
> My knowledge of gnus doesn't allow me to debug this. 

Sorry that error comes also from my gnus-summary-line-format where the
%4{xxx} expressions make gnus use the corresponding gnus-face-4. So the
%first error mentionning gnus-face-5 is caused by the %5 in first line
%of the format that places the messages flags.
I forget to refer to them.

To correct that you can either rid the "%number{" and the corresponding
"}" or you can define your own faces.
E.g. :

    (copy-face 'default 'mysubject)
    (setq gnus-face-1 'mysubject)
  
    (copy-face 'default 'mytime)
    (set-face-foreground 'mytime "indianred4")
    (setq gnus-face-2 'mytime)
...  

> [...]
> I highly appreciate your help! However I got some weird boxes instead
> of the beautiful threading. The screenshot is here 
> (http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/sl392/gnus.png). 
> 
> I'm running gnus 5.10.6 from emacs-snapshot-gtk in debian
> unstable. It's actually 22.0.50.1. I think it should have utf-8
> support. Maybe I'm missing something in the configure. Any ideas?

The hollow boxes show that Emacs did not found a suitable font to
display the corresponding character. In this case it's unicode chars.

BTW : for a char you can obtain some details about the code and the
rendering font with C-u C-x = on the char.

Try to get the unifont Debian package that should help to display unicode
chars (it helped me with Debian to get them).

> Again, thanks very much

:) I'm glad to provide those settings that I carefully collected for
months from many different information sources, including the french
emacs group fr.comp.applications.emacs, the Big8 comp.emacs,
gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.gnus *and* the emacs-wiki
(http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki)

HTH
-- 
Sébastien Kirche

Re: How to define this summary-line-format?

[leon]

Sébastien Kirche <sebastien.kirche.no@spam.free.fr.invalid> writes:

> At 18:11 on nov 7 2005, leon said :
>
>> I mean the dashed lines in the summary window. Those separate date & I
>> name etc. I tried using '|' but it looked like continuous line. I
>> really like the dashed line.
>
> Oh, then those lines come from the "%4{|%}" parts of my
> gnus-summary-line-format. Basically it makes gnus place a pipe char
> between the fields.
> I suppose that the dash style is due to some characters that are bigger
> than the pipe and it makes Emacs adapt the line height.
>
>> > With a custom date format :
>> > ;; affichage de la date en relatif
>> > (setq gnus-user-date-format-alist
>> > 	  '(((gnus-seconds-today) . " %k:%M") ;dans la journée = 14:39
>> > 		((+ 86400 (gnus-seconds-today)) . "hier %k:%M")
>> > 		;hier = hier 14:39
>> > 		((+ 604800 (gnus-seconds-today)) . "%a %k:%M")
>> > 		;dans la semaine = sam 14:39
>> > 		((gnus-seconds-month) . "%a %d") ;ce mois = sam 28
>> > 		((gnus-seconds-year) . "%b %d") ;durant l'année = mai 28 (t
>> > 		. "%b %d '%y"))) ;le reste = mai 28 '05
>> > 
>> 
>> Get this error: "symbol's value as variable is void: gnus-face-5"
>> My knowledge of gnus doesn't allow me to debug this. 
>
> Sorry that error comes also from my gnus-summary-line-format where the
> %4{xxx} expressions make gnus use the corresponding gnus-face-4. So the
> %first error mentionning gnus-face-5 is caused by the %5 in first line
> %of the format that places the messages flags.
> I forget to refer to them.
>
> To correct that you can either rid the "%number{" and the corresponding
> "}" or you can define your own faces.
> E.g. :
>
>     (copy-face 'default 'mysubject)
>     (setq gnus-face-1 'mysubject)
>   
>     (copy-face 'default 'mytime)
>     (set-face-foreground 'mytime "indianred4")
>     (setq gnus-face-2 'mytime)
> ...  

Now it works like a charm. Also I set gnus-face-4 to a small font 6x12
to get a dashed '|'.

>
>> [...]
>> I highly appreciate your help! However I got some weird boxes instead
>> of the beautiful threading. The screenshot is here 
>> (http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/sl392/gnus.png). 
>> 
>> I'm running gnus 5.10.6 from emacs-snapshot-gtk in debian
>> unstable. It's actually 22.0.50.1. I think it should have utf-8
>> support. Maybe I'm missing something in the configure. Any ideas?
>
> The hollow boxes show that Emacs did not found a suitable font to
> display the corresponding character. In this case it's unicode chars.
>
> BTW : for a char you can obtain some details about the code and the
> rendering font with C-u C-x = on the char.
>
> Try to get the unifont Debian package that should help to display unicode
> chars (it helped me with Debian to get them).

apt-get install unifont fixes the problem.

>
>> Again, thanks very much
>
> :) I'm glad to provide those settings that I carefully collected for
> months from many different information sources, including the french
> emacs group fr.comp.applications.emacs, the Big8 comp.emacs,
> gnu.emacs.help, gnu.emacs.gnus *and* the emacs-wiki
> (http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki)
>
> HTH
> -- 
> Sébastien Kirche

I'm grateful for your generosity. Now my gnus looks a lot more
pleasing. Look here: http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/sl392/gnus3.png

-- 
Cheers

Re: How to define this summary-line-format?

[Sébastien Kirche]

At 00:11 on nov 8 2005, leon said :

> I'm grateful for your generosity. Now my gnus looks a lot more
> pleasing. Look here: http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/sl392/gnus3.png

:)

Maybe you could try the alternative chars for the thread tree : i find
them nicer. 

I just stopped to use them because currently with OSX they are not well
displayed.

-- 
Sébastien Kirche

Re: How to define this summary-line-format?

[leon]

Sébastien Kirche <sebastien.kirche.no@spam.free.fr.invalid> writes:

> At 00:11 on nov 8 2005, leon said :
>
>
> :)
>
> Maybe you could try the alternative chars for the thread tree : i find
> them nicer. 
>
> I just stopped to use them because currently with OSX they are not well
> displayed.

Wow, the second one looks better. Love it! By the way, do you know how
to set the threading signs (those Unicode) to a different colour than
the subject line? 

-- 
Cheers

Re: How to define this summary-line-format?

[Sébastien Kirche]

At 03:11 on nov 9 2005, leon said :

> Wow, the second one looks better. Love it! By the way, do you know how
> to set the threading signs (those Unicode) to a different colour than
> the subject line? 

Well, i never took time to think about it, but regarding my
gnus-summary-line-format (that i picked from somewhere on the web with a
little tweaking) the threading signs *should* be displayed with the
gnus-face-3 (notice the %3{%B%} ) while the message subject *should* use
the gnus-face-1.

-- 
Sébastien Kirche

Re: How to define this summary-line-format?

[leon]

Sébastien Kirche <sebastien.kirche.no@spam.free.fr.invalid> writes:

> At 03:11 on nov 9 2005, leon said :
>
> Well, i never took time to think about it, but regarding my
> gnus-summary-line-format (that i picked from somewhere on the web with a
> little tweaking) the threading signs *should* be displayed with the
> gnus-face-3 (notice the %3{%B%} ) while the message subject *should* use
> the gnus-face-1.
>

Indeed:-)

-- 
Cheers

Re: How to define this summary-line-format?

[leon]

Sébastien Kirche <sebastien.kirche.no@spam.free.fr.invalid> writes:
>
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "\x490b3 ") ; "> "
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root "\x490b3 ")                    ; "> "
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent "  ")                 ; ""
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other "\x4903c\x49020\x490fb ") ; "+-> "
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical "\x49022")                       ; "| "
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "\x49034\x49020\x490fb ")	; "\\-> "
>
> Some variants :
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "\x4912f ")                          ; "> "
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root "\x490f8 ")                    ; "> "
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root "\x4912f ")                    ; "> "
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent "\x4912e ")                 ; ""
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent "\x490b3 ")                 ; ""
> 	  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "\x490b0\x49020\x490fa ")   ; "\\-> "

Could also make a version without using unifont? I want this to be
proper displayed in other platform such windows and other Linux
distributions. Many thanks!

-- 
Leon

Re: How to define this summary-line-format?

[Sébastien Kirche]

At 21:11 on nov 18 2005, leon said :

> Could also make a version without using unifont? I want this to be
> proper displayed in other platform such windows and other Linux
> distributions. Many thanks!

You can try with the values that were in the comments, and put them in a
conditional statement that checks the host by its platform or its name.

E.g.: 

    (if (eq system-type 'windows-nt)
        (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "> " ; "> "
              gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root "> "
              gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent ""
              gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other "+-> "
              gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical "| "
              gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "\\-> ")
      (setq ;... the unifont assignment)) ; platforms other than windows

You can make some variants if you want another conditional scheme than
if/else with (cond) or (when), and to test the name of th host you can
test (string-match "\\`foobar" system-name)

HTH.
-- 
Sébastien Kirche

Re: How to define this summary-line-format?

[leon]

Sébastien Kirche <sebastien.kirche.no@spam.free.fr.invalid> writes:
>
> You can try with the values that were in the comments, and put them in a
> conditional statement that checks the host by its platform or its name.
>
> E.g.: 
>
>     (if (eq system-type 'windows-nt)
>         (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "> " ; "> "
>               gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root "> "
>               gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent ""
>               gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other "+-> "
>               gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical "| "
>               gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "\\-> ")
>       (setq ;... the unifont assignment)) ; platforms other than windows

Thanks a lot. It works though not pretty.

-- 
Leon

Re: How to define this summary-line-format?

[Frank Schmitt]

leon <sdl.web@gmail.com> writes:

> I started using gnus hours ago so please forgive my ignorance. 
>
> This screenshot (http://my.gnus.org/node/316) is absolutely amazing.
> I'm trying to mimic one but have some difficulties.
>
> 1. vertical dashed separation line (`|' doesn't look dashed)
> 2. abbreviated date (i.e. "Mo 13")

Does %&user-date; do what you want?

> 3. very nice threading format

Something like this?

(unless (eq window-system nil)
  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "►")
  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other "├─►")
  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "└─►")
  (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical "│"))
(setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent " ")

and then including %B in gnus-summary-line-format like in
(setq gnus-summary-line-format ":%U%R%B %s %-79= │%4L │%-21,21f │%&user-date;\n")

(If you write the unicode characters verbatim in .gnus, remember to put
the lines

;; -*- emacs-lisp -*-
;;coding: mule-utf-8-unix

at the top of .gnus so Emacs knows it's Unicode.)

-- 
Did you ever realize how much text fits in eighty columns? If you now consider
that a signature usually consists of up to four lines, this gives you enough
space to spread a tremendous amount of information with your messages. So seize
this opportunity and don't waste your signature with bullshit nobody will read.

Re: How to define this summary-line-format?

[Reiner Steib]

On Mon, Nov 07 2005, Frank Schmitt wrote:

> (unless (eq window-system nil)
>   (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "►")
>   (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other "├─►")
>   (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "└─►")
>   (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical "│"))

Probably you meant to test if Emacs is able to display those chars
instead of testing if `window-system' is non-nil.

But I'm not sure what is the best way to test this.

(when (or window-system
	  (eq (terminal-coding-system) 'mule-utf-8))
  [...])

... isn't much more clean.  Better suggestions?

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
---ooO-(_)-Ooo---  |  PGP key available  |  http://rsteib.home.pages.de/

Re: How to define this summary-line-format?

[leon]

Reiner Steib <reinersteib+from-uce@imap.cc> writes:

> On Mon, Nov 07 2005, Frank Schmitt wrote:
>
>> (unless (eq window-system nil)
>>   (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "►")
>>   (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other "├─►")
>>   (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "└─►")
>>   (setq gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical "│"))
>
> Probably you meant to test if Emacs is able to display those chars
> instead of testing if `window-system' is non-nil.
>
> But I'm not sure what is the best way to test this.
>
> (when (or window-system
> 	  (eq (terminal-coding-system) 'mule-utf-8))
>   [...])
>
> ... isn't much more clean.  Better suggestions?
>
> Bye, Reiner.
> -- 
>        ,,,
>       (o o)
> ---ooO-(_)-Ooo---  |  PGP key available  |  http://rsteib.home.pages.de/

It seems my system supports utf-8 but I still see boxes for the utf-8
characters in Frank's article. Any ideas?

Here is the output of 'describe-current-coding-system'
;;;;;;;;;;;;;start;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Coding system for saving this buffer:
  Not set locally, use the default.
Default coding system (for new files):
  u -- mule-utf-8 (alias: utf-8)

Coding system for keyboard input:
  nil
Coding system for terminal output:
  1 -- iso-8859-1 (alias of iso-latin-1)

Defaults for subprocess I/O:
  decoding: u -- mule-utf-8 (alias: utf-8)

  encoding: u -- mule-utf-8 (alias: utf-8)

;;;;;;;;;;;;;end;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
-- 
Cheers