Re: [Nmh-workers] changes to mark.man

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Larry,

> There appears to be three options - "name:n", "name:+n", or "name:-n",
> yet they refer to the 'first or last `n' messages', respectively, i.e.
> there are two respective explanations for three options

It's `name:n' where n is a non-zero integer.  If positive then it's the
first n messages, if negative then it's the last n.

In having a quick look at the code, I spotted `name=n', again with n
being non-zero.  This actually does what I've wanted in the past.  (Did
I complain and someone add it when I was stuck using an old version?
:-)  If n is positive then it's the nth message of the sequence, if
negative then the nth from the end of the sequence in the other
direction, e.g. foo=-2 is the penultimate.

There is another difference between `:' and `='.  Given a ten long
sequence foo, I can foo:42 and foo:-42 and the 42 is clamped to ten.
But trying to pick the 42nd of ten is naturally an error, though not a
very clear one.

Cheers, Ralph.

P.S. The Mail-Followup-To header is set;  that might help your replies
to hit the list.  :-)