Re: [Nmh-workers] sortm's Default of all is Brain-Damaged.

[Paul Fox]

kevin wrote:
 > 
 > On 11 October 2012 at 10:35, Joel Uckelman <address@hidden> wrote:
 > 
 > > Speaking for myself only: I can't recall a single time in 15 years of
 > > using nmh that I've wanted to use sortm to sort less than a complete
 > > folder.
 > 
 > I have two use cases for sortm
 > 
 >  1.  sortm +folder
 > 
 >  2.  sortm -textfield subject -limit 0 +folder
 > 

does that actually work for you?  i like catching up on mail in
subject thread order.  the man page says that "-textfield subject
-limit 0" should sort in subject-major, date-minor order, which i
think is what i want -- messages grouped by subject, and by date
within each subject.

but, in a folder with these messages:
 
$ scan last:6
  9891  12:40 Sally Moulton      [arlington] Solarize Mass reps speak tonight,
  9893  12:19 David Levine       Re: [Nmh-workers] sortm's Default of all is Br
  9894  12:37 To:address@hidden  RSS feeds
  9899  05:51 "T-Alerts Notific  Red Line Braintree Alert
  9900  14:32 Ralph Corderoy     [Nmh-workers] sortm's Default of all is Brain-
  9901  11:37 To:address@hidden  RSS feeds
$ sortm -textfield subject -limit 0 last:6
$ scan last:6
  9891  12:40 Sally Moulton      [arlington] Solarize Mass reps speak tonight,
  9893  12:19 David Levine       Re: [Nmh-workers] sortm's Default of all is Br
  9894  14:32 Ralph Corderoy     [Nmh-workers] sortm's Default of all is Brain-
  9899  05:51 "T-Alerts Notific  Red Line Braintree Alert
  9900  12:37 To:address@hidden  RSS feeds
  9901  11:37 To:address@hidden  RSS feeds
 
note that ralph's 14:32 message really is earlier than david's 12:19
reply, due to timezone.  the subject ordering is correct, but the date
ordering is reversed from chronological.

paul

--- somewhat unrelated but quite useful workaround follows ---

the following commands are my workaround:
    sortm
    sortm -textfield subject
 
i've put the messages back in the original order to start:
 
$ scan last:6
  9915  12:40 Sally Moulton      [arlington] Solarize Mass reps speak tonight,
  9916  12:19 David Levine       Re: [Nmh-workers] sortm's Default of all is Br
  9917  12:37 To:address@hidden  RSS feeds
  9918  05:51 "T-Alerts Notific  Red Line Braintree Alert
  9919  14:32 Ralph Corderoy     [Nmh-workers] sortm's Default of all is Brain-
  9920  11:37 To:address@hidden  RSS feeds
$ sortm last:6
$ scan last:6
  9915  05:51 "T-Alerts Notific  Red Line Braintree Alert
  9916  14:32 Ralph Corderoy     [Nmh-workers] sortm's Default of all is Brain-
  9917  11:37 To:address@hidden  RSS feeds
  9918  12:37 To:address@hidden  RSS feeds
  9919  12:40 Sally Moulton      [arlington] Solarize Mass reps speak tonight,
  9920  12:19 David Levine       Re: [Nmh-workers] sortm's Default of all is Br
$ sortm -textfield subject last:6
$ scan last:6
  9915  05:51 "T-Alerts Notific  Red Line Braintree Alert
  9916  14:32 Ralph Corderoy     [Nmh-workers] sortm's Default of all is Brain-
  9917  12:19 David Levine       Re: [Nmh-workers] sortm's Default of all is Br
  9918  11:37 To:address@hidden  RSS feeds
  9919  12:37 To:address@hidden  RSS feeds
  9920  12:40 Sally Moulton      [arlington] Solarize Mass reps speak tonight,

this isn't subject-major, but that's okay for my purposes:  having the
threads sorted in thread commencement order is actually more useful than
alphabetic.
 
=---------------------
 paul fox, address@hidden (arlington, ma, where it's 51.4 degrees)