[RFC patch] emacs: skeleton of texinfo manual for emacs interface.

david at tethera.net david at tethera.net
Sat Mar 9 18:22:31 PST 2013


From: David Bremner <bremner at debian.org>

Currently this only attempts to document the notmuch-hello interface.
---

I have thought for a long time that we should have some unified
documentation for the emacs interface. This is some sketch of a
beginning.  Building such a document turns out to be a fair amount of
work, but I guess it should be possible to have something better than
what we have now (i.e. nothing). I did try to avoid duplication with
both the docstrings and the man pages. Eventually perhaps we should
have some common format to generate the man pages and info pages from,
but I didn't want to hold up the whole effort waiting for that.

One thing that would make this effort more bearable is being able to
re-use material from the wiki. Currently there is no license
information at all on that material; I'm not sure exactly how to
proceed.

To build this, use "makeinfo notmuch.texi"
You can then (perversely) view it without emacs with "info -f notmuch.info"
or in emacs with C-u C-h i notmuch.info.


 emacs/notmuch.texi | 274 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 emacs/version.texi |   2 +
 2 files changed, 276 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 emacs/notmuch.texi
 create mode 100644 emacs/version.texi

diff --git a/emacs/notmuch.texi b/emacs/notmuch.texi
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d4f7296
--- /dev/null
+++ b/emacs/notmuch.texi
@@ -0,0 +1,274 @@
+\input texinfo   @c -*-texinfo-*-
+ at comment $Id at w{$}
+ at comment %**start of header
+ at setfilename notmuch.info
+ at include version.texi
+ at settitle Notmuch @value{VERSION}
+ at comment %**end of header
+
+ at macro keyindex {NAME}
+ at kindex \NAME\
+ at cindex \NAME\
+ at end macro
+
+ at macro funindex {NAME}
+ at findex \NAME\
+ at cindex \NAME\
+ at end macro
+
+ at macro varindex {NAME}
+ at vindex \NAME\
+ at cindex \NAME\
+ at end macro
+
+
+ at copying
+This manual is for Notmuch (version @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED})
+
+Copyright @copyright{} 2013 David Bremner
+
+This manual is distributed under the same terms as notmuch, which are as follows.
+ at quotation
+ This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ (at your option) any later version.
+
+ This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+ You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ along with this program.  If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/ .
+
+ at end quotation
+ at end copying
+
+ at dircategory Texinfo documentation system
+ at direntry
+* notmuch: (notmuch)Emacs interface to notmuch
+ at end direntry
+
+ at titlepage
+ at title Notmuch
+ at subtitle for version @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
+ at author David Bremner (@email{david@@tethera.net})
+ at page
+ at vskip 0pt plus 1filll
+ at insertcopying
+ at end titlepage
+
+ at contents
+
+ at ifnottex
+ at node Top
+ at top Notmuch
+
+This manual is for Notmuch (version @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}).
+ at end ifnottex
+
+ at menu
+* About this Manual::
+* notmuch-hello::
+* notmuch-search::
+* Search Syntax::
+* Configuration::
+* Function Index::
+* Variable Index::
+* Index::
+ at end menu
+
+
+ at node About this Manual
+ at unnumbered About this Manual
+
+This manual covers only the emacs interface to notmuch. For
+information on the command line interface, see
+ at url{http://notmuchmail.org/manpages/notmuch-1,the notmuch man page}.
+To save
+typing, we will sometimes use @emph{notmuch} in this manual to refer
+to the Emacs interface to notmuch. If the distinction should every be
+important, we'll refer to the Emacs inteface as @emph{notmuch-emacs}.
+
+Notmuch-emacs is highly customizable via the the Emacs customization
+framework (or just by setting the appropriate variables).  We try to
+point out relevant variables in this manual, but in order to avoid
+duplication of information, but you can usually find the most detailed
+description in the varables docstring.
+
+ at node notmuch-hello
+ at chapter notmuch-hello
+
+ at funindex notmuch-hello
+ at funindex notmuch
+
+ at command{notmuch-hello} is the main entry point for notmuch. You can
+start it with @kbd{M-x notmuch} or @kbd{M-x notmuch-hello}. The
+startup screen looks something like the following. There are some
+hints at the bottom of the screen.  There are three main parts to the
+notmuch-hello screen, discussed below. The @strong{bold} text
+indicates buttons you can click with a mouse or by positioning the
+cursor and pressing @kbd{<return>}
+
+ at example
+ at group
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+   Welcome to @strong{notmuch}. You have 52 messages.
+
+Saved searches: @strong{[edit]}
+
+	  52 @strong{inbox}           52 @strong{unread}
+
+Search:                                                                     .
+
+All tags: @strong{[show]}
+
+	 Type a search query and hit RET to view matching threads.
+		Edit saved searches with the `edit' button.
+  Hit RET or click on a saved search or tag name to view matching threads.
+      `=' to refresh this screen. `s' to search messages. `q' to quit.
+		    @strong{Customize} this page.
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ at end group
+ at end example
+
+You can change the overall appearence of the notmuch-hello screen by
+customizing the variable @var{notmuch-hello-sections}.
+ at varindex{notmuch-hellow-sections}
+
+ at menu
+* notemuch-hello Key Bindings::
+* Saved Searches::
+* Search Box::
+* Known Tags::
+ at end menu
+
+ at node notemuch-hello Key Bindings
+ at section notmuch-hello key bindings
+
+ at table @kbd
+
+ at item <tab>
+      Move to the next widget (button or text entry field)
+ at item <backtab>
+      Move to the previous widget.
+ at item <return>
+      Activate the current widget.
+ at item =
+Refresh the buffer; mainly update the counts of messages for various
+saved searches.
+ at item G
+      Import mail, @xref{Importing Mail}.
+ at item m
+      Compose a message
+ at item s
+Search the notmuch database, @xref{notmuch-search}.
+ at item v
+      Print notmuch version
+ at item q
+Quit
+ at end table
+
+
+ at node Saved Searches
+ at section Saved Searches
+ at cindex Saved Searches
+
+ at varindex notmuch-saved-searches
+ at varindex notmuch-saved-search-sort-function
+ at varindex notmuch-column-control
+
+Notmuch replaces the static assignment of messages with the more
+dynamic notion of searching.
+Notmuch-hello presents the user with a customizable set of saved
+searchs. The initial defaults are @code{tag:inbox} and
+ at code{tag:unread}, but you can customize the following variables
+
+
+ at table @var
+ at item notmuch-saved-searches
+A list of cons pairs, the first being the name to display, the second being a query string
+for notmuch. @xref{Search Syntax}, for more info.
+ at item notmuch-saved-searches-sort-function
+   This variable controls how saved searches should be sorted. A value
+   of @code{nil} displays the saved searches in the order they are
+   stored in `notmuch-saved-searches'.
+ at item notmuch-column-control
+      Controls the number of columns for displaying saved-searches/tags
+ at end table
+
+ at node Search Box
+ at section Search Box
+ at cindex Search Box
+
+ at varindex notmuch-hello-recent-searches-max
+The search box lets the user enter an notmuch query.  @xref{Search
+Syntax}, for more info on notmuch query syntax. A history of recent
+searches is also displayed by default.  The latter is controlled by
+the variable @var{notmuch-hello-recent-searches-max}.
+
+ at node Known Tags
+ at section Know Tags
+ at cindex Known Tags
+ at varindex notmuch-hello-tag-list-make-query
+ at varindex notmuch-hello-hide-tags
+ at varindex notmuch-column-control
+
+One special kind of saved search provided by default is for each
+individual tag defined in the database. This can be controlled via the
+following variables.
+
+ at table @var
+ at item notmuch-hello-tag-list-make-query
+      Control how to construct a search (``virtual folder'') from a given tag.
+ at item notmuch-hello-hide-tags
+      Which tags not to display at all.
+ at item notmuch-column-control
+      Controls the number of columns for displaying saved-searches/tags
+ at end table
+
+
+ at node notmuch-search
+ at chapter notmuch-search
+
+
+ at node Search Syntax
+ at chapter Search Syntax
+
+The canonical reference for notmuch search syntax is
+ at url{http://notmuchmail.org/manpages/notmuch-search-terms-7,notmuch-search-terms(7)}
+
+ at node Configuration
+ at chapter Configuration
+
+
+ at menu
+* Importing Mail::
+ at end menu
+
+ at node Importing Mail
+ at section Importing Mail
+
+ at funindex notmuch-poll
+ at vindex notmuch-poll-script
+
+ at node Function Index
+ at unnumbered Function Index
+
+ at printindex fn
+
+ at node Variable Index
+ at unnumbered Variable Index
+
+ at printindex vr
+
+ at node Index
+ at unnumbered Index
+
+ at printindex cp
+
+
+ at bye
diff --git a/emacs/version.texi b/emacs/version.texi
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4de9b21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/emacs/version.texi
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+ at set VERSION 0.15.2
+ at set UPDATED April 01, 1970
-- 
1.8.2.rc1



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