This section discusses some styles of usage or ways to make use of some of the features of Hemlock's interface to MH that might not be obvious. In each case, setting some variables and/or remembering an extra side effect of a command will lend greater flexibility and functionality to the user. [annotate]
The unseen Headers buffer by default only shows unseen headers which is adequate for one folder, simple mail handling. Some people use their New Mail Folder only for incoming mail, refiling or otherwise dispatching a message immediately. Under this mode it is easy to conceive of the user not having time to respond to a message, but he would like to leave it in this folder to remind him to take care of it. Using the Unseen Headers Message Spec variable, the user can cause all the messages the New Mail Folder to be inserted into the unseen Headers buffer whenever just unseen headers would be. This way he sees all the messages that require immediate attention. [annotate]
To achieve the above effect, Unseen Headers Message Spec should be set to the string "all". This variable can be set to any general MH message specification (see section 10.6 of this chapter), so the user can include headers of messages other than those that have not been seen without having to insert all of them. For example, the user could set the variable to "flagged" and use the Mark Message command to add messages he's concerned about to the "flagged" sequence. Then the user would see new mail and interesting mail in his unseen Headers buffer, but he doesn't have to see everything in his New Mail Folder. [annotate]
Depending on the kinds of messages one tends to handle, the user may find himself usually replying to everyone who receives a certain message, or he may find that this is only desired occasionally. In either case, the user can set up his MH profile to do one thing by default, using the Reply to Message Prefix Action variable in combination with a prefix argument to the Reply to Message command to get the other effect. [annotate]
For example, the following line in one's MH profile will cause MH to reply to everyone receiving a certain message (except for the user himself since he saves personal copies with the -fcc switch): repl: -cc all -nocc me -fcc out-copy This user can set Reply to Message Prefix Action to be :no-cc-all. Then whenever he invokes Reply to Message with a prefix argument, instead of replying to everyone, the draft will be set up in reply only to the person who sent the mail. [annotate]
As an alternative example, not specifying anything in one's MH profile and setting this variable to :cc-all will have a default effect of replying only to the sender of a piece of mail. Then invoking Reply to Message with a prefix argument will cause everyone who received the mail to get a copy of the reply. If the user does not want a cc: copy, then he can add -nocc me as a default switch and value in his MH profile. [annotate]