ETB = Eli the Bearded <usenet-tag(_at_)qz(_dot_)little-neck(_dot_)ny(_dot_)us>
ETB> terry> languages which were not designed for very flexible or
ETB> terry> sophisticated processing, and as a result tend towards
ETB> terry> obscurity.
ETB>
ETB> I challenge that procmail is not "very flexible or sophisticated",
ETB> though I will conceed it is plenty obscure.
ETB>
ETB> In the following I assign stuff to variables, while in a real
ETB> procmailrc I would use just straight scoring.
Oh bearded Eli, thanks for all those recipes, I will study them!
But what i said, and what I still say, was that procmail was not
designed for this kind of flexible and sophisticated stuff. not that
it can't be done (as you demonstrated!).
I don't have much experience with procmail, but after reading (and
re-reading) the man pages, reading recipes here, and just from general
experience messing with computers and command languages etc., I'd bet
good money that when the thing was designed, support for the kinds of
stuff that is now being done was not there. It (the recipe language)
has all the classic signs (whatever they are) of a language that has
grown by accretion, been hacked on and tweaked and fiddled and so
on. When this happens, things tend towards obscurity.
Well, I'm going to respond more, but I have to leave now...
cheers,
terry.