Re: [Nmh-workers] mh-format multiply function

[David Levine]

Norm wrote:

> mh-format constitutes a real barrier to "All power to the user", for
> all but the most sophisticated of users.

As long as everything works out of the box, I don't think that's
a problem.  At least not a problem that should be addressed by
adding more options and code.  I agree with Ken that providing
more examples is the way to go.

> The option would be -exec procedure_name, or if you like, -eval
> procedure_name. If present, then procedure_name would be invoked for
> each message. procedure_name's stdout would completely replace each
> scan line.

Why not pipe the output of scan/inc through a program that calls
procedure_name?  For mhshow, replace mhlproc and/or moreproc?

> For each component, comp, of a message, it would define an
> environment variable, NMH_FORMAT_comp, whose value was the content
> of that component.

That's a messy interface.  Should NMH_FORMAT_Received, for
example, contain some kind of flattened string array?  And
environment variables are case sensitive, so should that be
NMH_FORMAT_Received, NMH_FORMAT_received, NMH_FORMAT_RECEIVED,
or something else?  I think this just trades one form of
messiness for another.

David