Hi Ken, > > Because MH lets us arrange things how we want so if decoding was > > done by default we'd need a means to get to the raw original version > > instead, e.g. I want to scan or pick them based on the raw value. > > Given decoding isn't lossless, this suggests both the original and > > decoded would need to be kept. > > I can VAGUELY imagine a situation where you might want to search > undecoded header fields, but I have to believe it is NOT the normal > behavior
I didn't suggest it's the normal behaviour, even for me. :-) > (also, I think a tool to search undecoded header fields already exists > and it's called grep). That doesn't work since fields can be across multiple lines. And I said scan and pick, not so not just search. > > Instead, and rather than apply the negative un-decode, my feeling is > > the decode should be explicit. We can provide default > > configurations that apply for it new users, much as we are now. > > people don't update their config files because they put in them in > place 20 years ago and they worked fine That includes me. When I've time, I need to clear them all out and start from scratch to see what's needed and the best way to solve problems, using a new installation in a second account as a guide. > so changing the default templates isn't as helpful as one would think. It's a good form of documentation. In particular, I think it would be helpful to spell out to users how they can get a ‘pristine’ set of .mh_profile, etc., that they can set an environment variable or two to so it's used instead of their unharmed ones from last millennia's. > Clearly the default should be decoded header fields unless a user > explictly asks for them unencded. I don't see how that's compatible with access to the lossless raw ones unless both are kept around. I may have suggested this before, but shipping a folder of test emails that a user can ‘scan +/usr/share/nmh/...’, etc., as a test of their configuration, along with pre-formatted ‘golden’ output would be an easy way for them to check they've updated to the latest bell and whistle. -- Cheers, Ralph. -- nmh-workers https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/nmh-workers
