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.
--
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