Re: gnus & nnmaildir

[Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se>]

> My recommendation is to use gnus' native nnml format
> rather than maildir and set up some (fancy) mail
> splitting. Example for nnml:
>
> (setq gnus-select-method '(nnml "yun"
> (nnml-use-compressed-files ".bz2")
> (nnml-compressed-files-size-threshold 65535)))

Yes, I can recommend nnml as well!

What I like about it is that it uses one file for each
mail, and those are put in your user filesystem in
directories that mimic the groups, so if you need to
apply shell tools (extract information that way) it is
all very clear how it works.

Splitting is a wonderful feature that makes mail as
sweet as news. Here is an example how it is done:

(setq nnmail-split-methods
 '(
   ("zsh"          "\\(^Cc\\|^\\(Resent-\\)?To\\):.*zsh-\\(workers\\|users\\)@zsh\.org.*")
   ("debian.user"  "\\(^Cc\\|^\\(Resent-\\)?To\\):.*debian-user@lists\.debian\.org.*")
   ("cc"           "\\(^Cc\\|^\\(Resent-\\)?To\\):.*\\(help-gnu-emacs@gnu\.org\\|info-gnus-english@gnu\.org\\).*")
   ("l4"           "\\(^Cc\\|^\\(Resent-\\)?To\\):.*l4-hackers@os\.inf\.tu-dresden\.de.*")
   ("emacs-w3m"    "^Subject:.*emacs-w3m.*")
   ("mail.misc"    "") ))

To try out the regexps, when you see an article in
Gnus, hit `B q' and it says to where it will go. `B r'
will actually put it there, but this is automatized for
future mails, of course (that's the idea).

Splitting makes it possible to be on a lot of listbots
but always with the same mail; and the inbox doesn't
get flooded still, or it does, but organized and not in
your face unless told so.

And you can keep - what do they call it? "family?" -
such mails can have a distinct directory (or group) as
well.

> You can, of course, stick to maildir and use it with
> gnus, which saves you the conversion. I converted and
> am not looking back to mutt; gnus is just too good :)

Gnus is fantastic! It is just the best thing ever. I
thought Emacs was great, now I know its better than
that.

You can just dodge the backend completely and focus on
the client.

The only thing I don't like with Gnus is the way it
looks with the default options. I put a lot of work
into that. I know Gnus is 100% programmable, but first
impressions shouldn't be underestimated. For me, that
was just educational and fun to change. But I fear lots
of people won't be attracted to put that much time into
it. I have a small fan page for Gnus, with a couple
screenshots how I think it should look:

dump - http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/gnus/dumps/new/group.png
page - http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/gnus/index.html

Perhaps instead of saying this I should put together a
Gnus theme? Is that something that people do? I
crosspost this to gnu.emacs.gnus, this perhaps we can
discuss there, if anyone has ideas (though Gnus is
certainly not off-topic on gnu.emacs.help).

I know I have said this a couple of times but I just
love talk about how good Gnus is and what amazing stuff
can be done with it. Some people say they don't like
writing and reading mails - let me tell you, if I
couldn't type, and had to use Outlook, I would *detest*
mails! Tools, tools, tools... If you are in a
beautiful, cool garden with the best shovel in the
world, working on your digging skills, digging for ten
hours straight is paradise.

I don't know if I should bow because I am so grateful
to Linux, Emacs, Gnus, and Usenet, *or* if I should
pound myself on the chest for finding them, and nothing
short of making them a part of me! Just unbelievable
stuff.

-- 
underground experts united