Re: [Nmh-workers] The invisible mail folder

[Dan Harkless]

On February 27, 2007, Norman Shapiro <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> I would also argue that the +folderName syntax for designating a file name is
> strange and unique to mh. If, at the time is was first conceived (by Bruce
> Borden) I had thought it through and had I realized that decades later people
> would still be using it, I would have vetoed it. Almost all other arguments
> syntaxes for doing this either use the --something=fileName syntax and/or a 
> pair
> of arguments.

It's unusual syntax, yeah, but I like how it unambiguously designates folder
names and is also very quick to type.  Having to say "--folder=inbox" all
the time would suck.  I guess syntax like "show inbox:1" / "refile 2 inbox:"
would have been okay too (and would be similar to the syntax used by
rcp/scp), but of course the colon syntax is used for sequences.

And of course the most common meaning of + in argument syntax is fairly
counterintuitive anyway ("+X" = "turn off option X", since "-X" already
means "turn on option X"), so I don't mind [n]mh using the character for its
own devices.  ;^>

-- 
Dan Harkless
http://harkless.org/dan/