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Re: [Nmh-workers] Relative Message Numbers

2013-03-22 18:57:14
A while back, there was a discussion about
relative message numbers. For example,
http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/nmh-workers/2012-10/msg00048.html.
But I don't believe there was a resolution. Was there?

If foobar is a message sequence then something like forbar+3, for the
third message of foobar, would make my life a bit easier.

I think Paul Fox accurately summed up the consensus view on that
thread:

  but i admit:  i've thought about this quite a bit in the past, and
  have never come up with syntax that was backward compatible,
  meaningful, and enough faster to type than the digits themselves to be
  useful.

I don't think the situation has changed.  Right now anything with a
"-" in it counts as a range, so there's that to think about.

Even better, would be to allow forbar+3,4 and foobar forbar+3-5. Then,
recursively, and perhaps a bit fancifully, since forbar+3-5 is a
message sequence, forbar+3-5+2 would be meaningful. If foobar has had a
least four messages it would denote the fourth messages of foobar.

I have to ask: is that easier?  I mean, really?  Robert has given a
reasonable alternative.

--Ken

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