Re: [VM] VM is awesome (was vm-save-buffer)

[Uday Reddy]

Johan Vromans writes:

> 
> *** Initial load of the IMAP cache often stops after a number of messages:
> 
> Retrieving message 346 (of 1689) from Home:Inbox, 100%... [3 times]
> Retrieval from Home:Inbox signaled: (vm-imap-protocol-error expected
> (BODY[] string) in FETCH response) Retrieving message 346 (of 1689) from
> Home:Inbox, 100%... Updating summary... 
> Parsing messages... done
> Expunging messages in cache... done
> 348 messages, 0 new, 0 unread, 0 deleted
> 
> Hitting 'g' a number of times makes the loading complete.

That looks like your IMAP server was disconnecting.

> *** I somehow lost my colours in the summary buffer.
> 
> *** Very annoying (and dangerous!) change in behavour:
> 
> In the summary window:
> Assume message 1688 is selected (blue).
> Click on message 1681, or move cursor to this message.
> 
> Type 'D' (delete). Message 1688 is marked for deletion.
> 
> In VM version 8.1.2, message 1681 would become selected and marked for
> deletion.

You might need to get rid of old cruft in your .vm file.  In particular, if
you were using `u-vm-color' (a non-standard add-on), you need to get rid of
it and use VM's summary faces. See the NEWS file and make sure that all the
CHANGES are incorporated in your .vm file.

> *** VM 8.2.0b is a prerelease and dates from Dec 27, 2011. It's been
> unmodified for almost 4 years. So it is either rock stable (and should have
> been officially released long ago), or it is dead.
> From the manual: "Version 8.2.0, planned for release in August/September,
> 2010." Really?
> 
> Sorry, but this does not help me regain confidence in VM.

I am only one person maintaining VM, and that limitation is not going to
disappear any time soon. I myself didn't have "confidence" in VM after Kyle
Jones retired. I regained it only after I ensured that I could fix things
myself if things went wrong. So I can understand if people feel nervous
about sticking to VM.

In retrospect, I also see that I have been overly cautious about making
public releases. It has been mostly due to the way Linux distributions
function, allowing users to upgrade to a new version with the click of a
button. But all my prereleases have been perfectly stable (except for one,
which I had to re-release a week later). In retrospect, all the prereleases
could have been public releases.

So, in future, you can expect more frequent public releases. Whether it will
be good or bad is another question.

Cheers,
Uday