[Nmh-workers] Gripe About Pick Man Page and New Feature Request

[norm]

GRIPE:

>From time immemorial, in the pick man page, the definitions of -after and
-before have been at best ambiguous and at worst wrong.

Here is my stab at a correct definition:

     The only messages considered will be those for which the relevant date
     field exists, has a valid format, and defines a date that is
     chronologically strictly after {before} the date specified.

This assumes that the field occurs at most once. What happens if there is more
than one occurrence is above my pay grade.

NEW FEATURE REQUEST:

Particularly, for use in connection with sortm, there ought to be a
straightforward way of selecting precisely those messages for which a validly
formated, relevant date field exists and has a valid format, or if you prefer
those not having a validly formatted, relevant date field.

Something like

  -before today -or -after today -or -after yesterday

is not straightforward.

    Norman Shapiro