Re: [VM] Beginner VM questions

[Uday Reddy]

Peter Davis writes:

> I used VM with POP3 a number of years ago, but now I'm trying to use it with
> IMAP, and have forgotten so much that I'm essentially a beginner again. So my
> apologies for using GMail for this.

That is perfectly fine.  It is good to have some "beginners" so that we know
what problems they encounter.

> 1) How can I send messages? I've tried 'm' and M-x vm-mail, but I just get the
> error: Symbol's function is void: vm-select-recipient-from-sender

I think something went wrong in the packaging of the beta release you are
using.  If you do `r' for some message then the library gets loaded, and
then you can kill that dummy reply buffer and continue.

> 2) I have a slew of IMAP folders. Is there a way to set VM up to automatically
> check for new mail in all folders? A way to jump from folder to folder with
> unread mail? Should they all go in the vm-imap-server-list, even though
> they're on the same server?

If you do `vm-list-imap-folders', you get a list of all the IMAP folders on
the server along with an indication of the new messages waiting in them.

Managing a whole bunch of folders conveniently is still on the To-do list.
What I do is to define an alias:

  (defalias 'imap 'vm-visit-imap-folder)

and then do `M-x imap' to go to a different folder.

> 3) Can I go from IMAP folder to IMAP folder without leaving a trail of open
> Summary and Presentation buffers?

There isn't anything built-in to do that.  But it is easy enough to define a
function for yourself, something along the lines of:

(defun switch ()
  (interactive)
  (call-interactively 'vm-quit t)
  (call-interactively 'vm-visit-imap-folder t))

It is necessary to quit the previous folder first.  Otherwise, whatever
changes you have made to the folder won't be written to the server.  This is
along the general Emacs principle of working with buffers separately from
files, in a non-synchronous way.  (I know, the world is going the way of
'Google Docs' where everything gets written to the server instantaneously.
We believe in the server being in a 'fire safe'.  You have to open and close
the safe every time. Otherwise it is liable to go up in a fire some day!
Metaphorically speaking of course.)

Cheers,
Uday