Re: [h-e-w] Gnus, anyone?

[Peter Davis]

At 11:36 PM 12/17/2001, Paul Kinnucan wrote:
> Peter Davis writes:
>  >
>  > I've been messing with gnus on and off for over a year, with emacs 19, 
> 20,
>  > and now 21.  I *still* can't get it to handle mail the way I'd like.  In
>  > particular:
>  >
>  > 1) I can't get messages to print to a network printer.
>  >
>  > 2) I can't get it to leave mail on a POP3 server so I can read it from
>  > multiple locations.  (I've read that epop3mail is able to do this, but I
>  > have not gotten it to work.)
>  >
>  > 3) I can't get it to do the "right thing" with HTML mail, which would 
> be to
>  > allow me to either display it as plain text, or to open a browser (*not*
>  > W3) to display it.
>  >
>  > Anyone had success with any of these?  I'm using gnus 5.8.8.
>  >
>  > Alternatively, can anyone suggest a good mail reader (MUA) for
>  > Windows?  I'd love to use MH, but I don't know of any Windows port of 
> that.
>  >
>
> I'm a bit further down this path than you. I tried the gnus for news
> and email route and hated it almost instantly. I now use the right
> tool for the right job, namely gnus for news and vm for email. I
> cannot recommend vm highly enough. It is a full-fledged email client,
> with folders, attachments, and pop3 leave-on/delete-from server
> capabilities. I use both these tools on Windows with Emacs. There are
> a few tricks to using vm on Windows, including compiling the base64
> encoder/decoder program that comes with the vm distribution. I'd be
> glad to share the compiled encoder/decoder, which speeds up processing of
> attachments significantly, and my .vm file, which embodies the things
> I've learned, with anyone who's interested in getting vm running on
> Windows. I also recommend subscribing to the vm newsgroup,
> comp.emacs.vm.info, and using the Emacs-based contact management
> program, bbdb, with vm, which allows you to add contacts directly
> from your email, with a single keystroke.

Actually, I've used VM extensively in the past, and I definitely prefer 
it's interface to Gnus for reading mail.  Especially with Rob Hodges' 
Personality Crisis (pcrisis) package, it's very easy to automate all kinds 
of routine e-mail chores.

However, there's one feature I really miss ... the ability to store each 
message in a separate file.  Gnus (and MH, for those old-time Unix weenies 
like me) both have this.  Maybe I'm just paranoid, but the thing I like 
about that feature is that there's no way a whole mail folder can get 
corrupted.

Unfortunately, Gnus seems to require unlimited tinkering.  As I said, I've 
been messing with it for over a year, trying to get these various packages 
to work, with no luck.

That said, I've been able to run VM in XEmacs, but not in gnu emacs 
21.1.  I've tried the "binary" version, but a get an error with the 
traceback below:

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-number-of-arguments (lambda (&optional 
dont-read-attributes gobble-order labels) (let ((tail-cons (vm-last 
vm-message-list)) b-list new-messages) (save-excursion (vm-save-restriction 
(widen) (if (fboundp (quote hproperty:but-create)) (hproperty:but-create)) 
(vm-build-message-list) (if (or (null tail-cons) (cdr tail-cons)) (progn 
(setq vm-ml-sort-keys nil) (if dont-read-attributes 
(vm-set-default-attributes (cdr tail-cons)) (vm-read-attributes (cdr 
tail-cons))) (if gobble-order (vm-gobble-message-order)) (if 
vm-thread-obarray (vm-build-threads (cdr tail-cons)))))) (setq new-messages 
(if tail-cons (cdr tail-cons) vm-message-list)) 
(vm-set-numbering-redo-start-point new-messages) 
(vm-set-summary-redo-start-point new-messages)) (setq new-messages 
(copy-sequence new-messages)) (if (and labels (boundp (quote 
vm-burst-digest-messages-inherit-labels)) 
vm-burst-digest-messages-inherit-labels) (let ((mp new-messages)) (while mp 
(vm-set-labels-of (car mp) (copy-sequence labels)) (setq mp (cdr mp))))) 
(if vm-summary-show-threads (progn (vm-update-summary-and-mode-line) 
(vm-sort-messages "thread"))) (if (and vm-arrived-message-hook new-messages 
(or tail-cons (null gobble-order))) (let ((new-messages new-messages)) 
(vm-update-summary-and-mode-line) (while new-messages (vm-run-message-hook 
(car new-messages) (quote vm-arrived-message-hook)) (setq new-messages (cdr 
new-messages))))) (vm-update-summary-and-mode-line) (run-hooks (quote 
vm-arrived-messages-hook)) (if (and new-messages vm-virtual-buffers) 
(save-excursion (setq b-list vm-virtual-buffers) (while b-list (if 
(buffer-name (car b-list)) (let (tail-cons) (set-buffer (car b-list)) (setq 
tail-cons (vm-last vm-message-list)) (vm-build-virtual-message-list 
new-messages) (if (or (null tail-cons) (cdr tail-cons)) (progn (setq 
vm-ml-sort-keys nil) (if vm-thread-obarray (vm-build-threads (cdr 
tail-cons))) (vm-set-summary-redo-start-point (or (cdr tail-cons) 
vm-message-list)) (vm-set-numbering-redo-start-point (or (cdr tail-cons) 
vm-message-list)) (if (null vm-message-pointer) (progn (setq 
vm-message-pointer vm-message-list vm-need-summary-pointer-update t) (if 
vm-message-pointer (vm-preview-current-message)))) (if 
vm-summary-show-threads (progn (vm-update-summary-and-mode-line) 
(vm-sort-messages "thread"))))))) (setq b-list (cdr b-list))))) 
new-messages)) 4)

  vm-assimilate-new-messages(nil t nil t)

  byte-code("À  !?Â(I                           (B\nÌ=,C2
  vm(nil nil)
  call-interactively(vm)
  execute-extended-command(nil)
* call-interactively(execute-extended-command)



--------
                                Peter Davis
                 Funny stuff at http://www.pfdstudio.com
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