Howdy. I've been working on a companion mail reading system
for nmh. In short, this is a system that builds a database
from mail in folders, allowing it to be searched quickly. It
includes a ranking mechanism, and allows messages to be searched
by rank. Sort of like the current fad of Bayesian spam filters,
but more general.
I have already checked in "external hook" modifications to nmh that
allow it to invoke external programs when mail is added, removed, or
refiled.
But, there's one more sticky point. There's no good way to test whether
or not nmh is installed. When I set up my program, I want to fail with
an error message if the user hasn't set up a mail directory, etc.
I need to do this because my program needs to invoke some nmh commands
via pipes, like "folder -fast" to get the current folder, or "mhpath +"
to get the mail folder. If there is no mail folder, nmh commands prompt
the user for installation as opposed to failing with an error code. This
is nice for a user but a real nuisance for a program.
I currently have an "is_nmh_installed()" function as part of my program.
I really don't like doing it this way because things like how the MH
environment variable works and where to find the mail folder in the profile
seem to me like nmh internals that belong in nmh, not in some other program.
So, I'd like to add something to nmh to allow for installation testing. I
think that the best way to do this would be to add a report-only option to
install-mh.
Any objections if I do this?
Jon