Re: vm mailer questions

["Robert J. Chassell" <bob@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

akp@xxxxxxxxxxx asks:

   First, does VM have an address book feature?  

BBDB mode in Emacs provides an address book for VM.  
You can get more information about BBDB at:

    http://pweb.netcom.com/~simmonmt/bbdb/index.html

If you get it, be sure to get version: 2.00.06, not version 2.00.

Here is what the creators of BBDB have to say:

    The Insidious Big Brother Database (BBDB) is a contact management
    utility for use with Emacs. It is tightly integrated with several
    mail and news readers, allowing it to create database entries
    directly from mail and news messages. As is usual with
    applications for Emacs, this record creation can be configured in
    many ways, ranging from a boolean create/don't create setting to
    creation based on the result of a user-supplied function.

    Database records can be used to store many types of information,
    from name and address to URLs and X-Face images. This information
    can be displayed when a message from an entity named in a database
    record is recieved. In addition, messages from database members
    can be tagged in the Gnus Summary Buffer, and Gnus scoring can be
    configured based on the contents of database records. Supercite
    citations can even be preset through the use of records in the
    BBDB.

I myself do not yet use BBDB, although I am looking in to it.


akp@xxxxxxxxxxx goes on to ask:

   Second, how do I attach files to my messages?

Just insert them using the `Control-x i' command to run `insert-file'.

If the files are long, gzip them and uuencode them.  Please, do *not*
use a proprietary or hard to convert format for attaching files.

Here are two handy aliases from my .bash_alias file:

    # uuencode a file
    uuen() { uuencode $@ $@ > $@.uu ; }

    # gzip and uuencode
    gzuu() { gzip $@ ; uuencode $@.gz $@.gz > $@.gz.uu ; ls -al $@.gz.uu ; }


akp@xxxxxxxxxxx also asks:

   Third, how do I import a file into an msg.  I do this often, creating
   a message out of a mailer for easy editing and then inserting the text
   into an msg.  I didn't see anything about that either.

I do not understand what you mean by the phrase `creating a message
out of a mailer'.  If you are talking about editing some text in a
different mode than Mail mode, then there are thre ways to email that
text:

Firstly, you can copy any text from one buffer to another using the 
`Meta-w' command  to copy and the `Control-y' command to paste.

Secondly, you can insert a file into any buffer, including a mail
buffer, using the `Control-x i' command to run `insert-file'.  

As a practical matter, if you are editing the text, I find it easier
to copy the text than to save the buffer as a file and then insert it.
Type `Control-x h' to mark the whole buffer, then copy the marked text
with the `Meta-w' command.  (Or, of course, you can copy just a
portion of the buffer, not the whole buffer.)  I use the `Control-x i'
command to insert files I am not working on at the moment.

Thirdly, you can convert any buffer to a mail buffer by changing to
Mail mode, that is, by typing `Meta-x mail-mode'.  

In the latter case, you will also have to insert a proper mail header
if you do not have one.  Rather than type `Meta-x mail-mode' to Mail
mode, I am more likely to insert a file into a mail buffer using
`Control-x i' since the `Control-x m' command (compose-mail)
automatically creates headers for me.  

For example, earlier this morning I sent Matthew Campbell a stable
copy of W3 mode, `w3-4.0pre.32.tar.gz.uu', as a 679,760 byte
uuencoded, gzip'd tar file.  I used the alias listed above to
uuencode the file and inserted it into a mail buffer using `Control-x
i'.  I created the mail buffer by typing the `r' reply command in the
mail message from Matthew.


akp@xxxxxxxxxxx also writes:

   Fourth, I attampted to forward an msg this morning.  The problem was
   that I couldn't see the text I was forwarding.  

This is strange.  Forwarding should work for you.  I just typed `f',
the `rmail-forward' command, in the RMAIL buffer holding your message.
Emacs produced a mail buffer that starts out looking like this:

    To: 
    Subject: [akp@xxxxxxxxxxx: vm mailer questions]
    Reply-to: bob@xxxxxxxxxxx
    --text follows this line--
    ------- Start of forwarded message -------
    Return-Path: <emacspeak@xxxxxxxxxxx>
    ...

and ends with a line that says:

    ------- End of forwarded message -------

(I obtained these lines by copying them from the newly created mail
buffer that holds the message to be forwarded.)

   I own a couple of list discussion groups, and in order to add
   members, I need to forward the request back to listserv, making
   appropriate changes to the text.

Right.  Using RMAIL, that is what you do: type `f' to create a forward
mail buffer, then edit it.  I do not know what you do in VM, but I
imagine it is similar.

-- 

    Robert J. Chassell                  bob@xxxxxxxxxxx
    Rattlesnake Enterprises             http://www.rattlesnake.com

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