On 01.12.06 Eric Kidd pressed the following keys: > > It can give you pretty much, but obviously you never cared to RTFM ;) > > Heh. Actually, I've read the non-reference sections of the manual about > ten times, and dug endlessly through the reference bits. After > reviewing your claims, and browsing the manual (for the Nth time), I've > concluded (1) mutt can probably do most of the things you claim, but (2) > the relevant information is spread out across about six subsections.
Tell me, what do you do, when you start using new GUI program? I usually start preferences and go through it switch by switch, configuring it to suit my needs. With mutt (and many other programs) I do the equivalent: read the reference section from top to bottom, checking all configuration variables and their default settings, and set them differently, when they are wrong (IMO). I do it once. When during the development program changes so heavily, that my config no longer functions properly I repeat the cycle. In case of mutt I had to do it twice in last four years (or so). > Let's try a test. > > Ideally, I'd like to search three separate folders No, AFAIK mutt can operate on single mailbox only. But there is history in all the editor prompts, so you can repeat the search pattern in different command and mailbox by simple ``arrow up'' > for all mail to or > from [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] during September 2000, display all > matching messages in a list view, and then search *those* for a number > of different strings in the body. l~L 'frob@(foo|bar)\.net' ~d 01/09/2000-31/09/2000 (this is lowercase-L at the beginning) You will be presented with limited view of only messages matching above pattern. You can now search within this set. > Bonus points if I can save the query Nope, but you can copy matching messages, just press T instead of l, and then ;C (if you want to clone the messages to other mailbox) or ;s (if you want to move them). > or have it automatically update if new, matching mail arrives. (This is > a real test case from a recent problem I had.) Nope, this are just the properties of your virtual mailbox. But you could emulate it by creating macro in ~/.muttrc: macro index \eL "l~L 'frob@(foo|bar)\.net' ~d 01/09/2000-31/09/2000\Cm" \ "My strange limit" And press ESC-L to get your limit imposed again, or: folder-hook match-for-foldername push\ "l~L 'frob@(foo|bar)\.net' \ ~d 01/09/2000-31/09/2000\Cm" To automagically limit it on entering some mailbox. (backslashes are to indicate that this is indeed single line, don't type them) BTW when you are in the limited view and the new message arrives it is automagically checked against limit pattern and shown or hidden apropriatelly. > How much of this can I actually do in mutt? Hacks and workarounds are > OK, but I'd like to know the (1) limitations and (2) actual keystrokes > so I can try it before posting my apology. > > [A bit of UI criticism: The main mutt UI is very good (it even includes > a menu bar of all important commands for novice users!), but these > extended features lack "discoverability"--they can't be figured out > simply by screwing around with the program. A HOWTO would have been > very helpful.] Press ? in any place in mutt to view all the accessible keybindings in this place (they are different in different places in mutt). Robert PS. No need to issue an apology, this was just a joke ;) PPS. I never tested recipes above, so they may need a little tweaking here and there (like placement of quotes, protecting some spaces with backslash etc). -- Bastard Operator From 149.156.96.35
