+README.claws
+------------
-What is Sylpheed Claws?
-----------------------
+Summary:
+
+1. What is Sylpheed Claws?
+2. Switching between Sylpheed Claws and Sylpheed
+ * From Sylpheed to Sylpheed Claws
+ * From Sylpheed Claws to Sylpheed
+3. Things Claws does different
+ * auto address replacement in summary view
+ * manual selection of MIME types for attachments
+ * sharing mail folders
+ * default to address for folders
+ * threading mode per folder
+ * spell checking (with installation instructions)
+ * simplify subject string
+4. How to contribute
+5. How to request features
+6. Installing Claws from CVS
+7. History
+
+
+
+1. What is Sylpheed Claws?
+--------------------------
Sylpheed Claws is a bleeding edge branch of Sylpheed, a light weight mail
user agent for UNIX. Features in this branch may (or may not) end up in
Sylpheed or Main.
-Switching to Claws
-------------------
-From the user perspective Claws is just a fancy Sylpheed, so it uses the
-same sylpheed setting files located in ~/.sylpheed.
+2. Switching between Sylpheed Claws and Sylpheed
+------------------------------------------------
-It's always a good idea to back up all files in ~/.sylpheed in case
-you want to switch back to Sylpheed. (You don't have to backup the
-directories.)
+ From Sylpheed to Sylpheed Claws
+ -------------------------------
-There are some things that frequently come up when switching to Claws:
+ From the user perspective Claws is just a fancy Sylpheed, so it uses the
+ same sylpheed setting files located in ~/.sylpheed.
+ It's always a good idea to back up all files in ~/.sylpheed in case
+ you want to switch back to Sylpheed. (You don't have to backup the
+ directories.)
-* When replying, the original sender's text is not quoted anymore.
+ There are some things that frequently come up when switching to Claws:
- Claws has a different quote format handler. Add either %Q or %q to the
- quote format text. Also click the button "Description of symbols"
- for more quotation symbols.
+ * Why does the advanced filtering system not work?
-* Why does the advanced filtering system not work?
-
- Claws uses the new filtering system as soon as you define a new rule for it.
- Your old sylpheed filter rules will not be used. In subdirectory tools/ of
- the distribution there is a Perl script called filter_conv.pl which convers
- old filter rules to the claws filtering system.
+ Claws uses the new filtering system as soon as you define a new rule for it.
+ Your old sylpheed filter rules will not be used. In subdirectory tools/ of
+ the distribution there is a Perl script called filter_conv.pl which convers
+ old filter rules to the claws filtering system.
-* What happened to the compose email and compose news buttons?
+ * What happened to the compose email and compose news buttons?
+
+ There's a composite button for both composing mail and news. You can toggle
+ between composing mail and news by clicking on the button with the triangle.
+
+
+ * And to the Preferences and Execute buttons?
- There's a composite button for both composing mail and news. You can toggle
- between composing mail and news by clicking on the button with the triangle.
+ Sorry, they're not there.
-* And to the Preferences and Execute buttons?
+ From Sylpheed Claws to Sylpheed
+ -------------------------------
- Sorry, they're not there.
+ Moving from Claws to Sylpheed is also simple. Sylpheed should neglect the things
+ Claws put in the settings files. This also means that the old rules will work
+ again.
+ If you want to switch back to Claws at a later time, make sure you back up at least
+ ~/.sylpheed/filteringrc (the Claws filtering rules), and ~/.sylpheed/sylpheedrc
+ (which may have some claws specific settings).
+ When switching back to Sylpheed you will not lose messages or message flags (color
+ labels, read / unread status of messages).
-Things Claws does different
----------------------------
+
+
+3. Things Claws does different
+------------------------------
Claws does a lot of things different. Here a quick run-down of things that
are hardly noticable, but deserve mentioning:
You can also share or use shared mail folders. Right-click a folder and
select Property. Change the Folder chmod setting.
-* default reply-to address for folders
+* default to address for folders
Most people filter mailing list mails to separate folders. Claws allows
- you to associate a folder with a mailing list. Right-click a folder,
- select Property and change the Default To setting.
+ you to associate a folder with a mailing list or a person. Right-click a
+ folder, select Property and change the Default To setting. When you
+ compose a new mail, when this folder is selected the recepient address
+ will be set to this address.
(NOTE: this is also a shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-setting! If you want
to send a private mail, don't have a folder selected with this setting
set.)
-* threading mode per folder
- Folders can have their own threading and sorting mode. Just select a
- folder, and set their threading and sorting mode.
+* Spell checker for Sylpheed-Claws
+
+ a. Requirements
+ b. Configuration and installation
+ c. Usage
+ d. Known problems
+
+ a. Requirements
+ ---------------
+
+ The spell checker in sylpheed requires the Portable Spell Checker
+ Interface Library pspell (http://pspell.sourceforge.net), version
+ 0.12.2 or newer.
+
+ You will need also the actual spell checker. There are two alternatives:
+
+ i) ispell (http://fmg-www.cs.ucla.edu/fmg-members/geoff/ispell.html),
+ which is found on quasi every distribution. You have then to
+ install the pspell-ispell module found at the pspell site.
+
+ ii) aspell (http://aspell.sourceforge.net). This spell checker
+ must be installed after installing pspell. The version tested
+ is .33.7 alpha. It has three different suggestion modes (fast
+ -default- , normal, bad spellers), has the ability to learn
+ from mistakes (default).
+
+ And, last but not least, do not forget to install the dictionaries. Check
+ the corresponding spell checker home page for more information on this.
+
+ b. Configuring Sylpheed
+ -----------------------
+
+ Spell checking is enabled if you configure sylpheed appropriately. Add
+ the option '--enable-pspell' when configuring. E.g.:
+
+ ./configure --enable-pspell
+
+ The configure script needs 'pspell-config' in your path. If it is
+ in weird places, use '--with-pspell-prefix' to tell the path to
+ pspell-config. E.g., if pspell-config is really
+ /foo/bar/pspell-config, then use:
+
+ ./configure --enable-pspell --with-pspell-prefix=/foo/bar
+
+ If you have problems with not found includes or libraries, check
+ first where these are located, and add either options:
+
+ --with-pspell-includes=/foo/bar/include
+
+ or
+
+ --with-pspell-libs=/foo/bar/lib
+
+ as appropriate.
+
+ Configure script summarizes the options compiled in. Check that
+ configure lists 'Pspell = yes'.
+
+ Then proceed as usual, with 'make' and 'make install'.
+
+ c. Usage
+ --------
+
+ NOTE: if you upgraded from 0.7.0claws, please reselect your default
+ dictionary in the preferences.
+
+ After successful compiling, you need to tell sylpheed where your
+ dictionaries reside. First run 'pspell-config pkgdatadir' on the
+ shell to get their path.
+
+ Then run sylpheed and go to Configuration -> Common preferences ->
+ Spell Checker. Check the box 'Enable spell checker (EXPERIMENTAL)' and
+ use the file selector ('...' button) to select the path where the
+ dictionaries reside. Within the file selector, go to that directory
+ and select *any* file in the file lists. Click ok. You should then
+ be able to select your default dictionary.
+
+ When composing, misspelled words are highlighted. Click on any
+ highlighted word with the right mouse button to get a list of
+ suggestions. The first entry of the menu just displays the unknown
+ word. Selecting "Accept in this session" (or hitting MOD1-Space,
+ where MOD1 is usually the ALT key), will ignore this word and accept
+ it in this message. Selecting the next entry "Add to dictionary", which
+ is bound to MOD1-Enter combination will add the unknown word to the
+ dictionary to learn it. The next entries are the suggested words.
+ The first 15 suggestions can be accessed typing one of the first letters
+ of latin alphabet (if this does not suit your language, please send
+ a mail to melvin.hadasht@free.fr). If you are using an aspell
+ dictionary, you can use its 'learn from mistake' feature, by pressing
+ the MOD1 key and selecting the suggestion (with the keyboard or with
+ the mouse). See pspell manual ยง4.7.1 for an explanation of this
+ feature.
+
+ If you click with the right mouse button everywhere else, or if you
+ shift-right-click even on a misspelled word, you get the
+ configuration menu. 'Check all' highlights all misspelled words.
+ With this menu, you can also change the dictionary while editing.
+ FInally, you can change the suggestion mode misktakes 'feature'
+ (useful only with aspell).
+
+ Spell checking can also be done using keyboard shortcuts. In the
+ "Edit" menu of the compose window, there are two menus "Check backwards
+ misspelled word" and "Forward to next misspelled word". Add to them
+ appropriate keyboard shortcuts. "Check backwards misspelled word"
+ checks backwards from cursor position for the first misspelled word.
+ If it finds one, it displays the suggestions lists which can be handled
+ with the keyboard as described before. When the suggestion menu is
+ closed, the cursor returns to its original position to be able to
+ continue editing. The "Forward to next misspelled word" do the same
+ thing in the other direction but moves the cursor at the end of the
+ misspelled word. This way, you can spell check easily a whole message
+ starting from its beginning and using the "Forward to next misspelled
+ word" keyboard short cut.
+
+
+ d. Known problems
+ -----------------
+
+ i) libtool
+
+ The only real known problems until now are configuration and
+ compilation problems due to libtool interaction with pspell.
+
+ If you do not compile pspell/aspell/pspell-ispell yourself, you
+ need to install them with their devel packages.
-* spell checking
- Spell checking using pspell library (http://pspell.sourceforge.net)
- can can be compiled in. You must have dictionaries available. You can
- use aspell (http://aspell.sourceforge.net) or ispell dictionaries. For
- the former, you have to install aspell. For the latter, you have to
- install the pspell-ispell module (see pspell home page) in addition
- to ispell. Spell checking can then enabled in Configuration |Common
- Preferences | Compose. Use the file selector and select any file in
- the directory where the dictionaries (*.pwli) are. Do not simply enter
- the path in the text entry. You can select the default dictionary.
- When composing, use the right-button click.
+ Pspell work with dynamic linking of libraries and thus uses the
+ libltdl library of libtool. If you have weird problems when
+ configuring showing 'libtool', chances are the libtool used when
+ compiling the pspell package is not compatible with what you have
+ on your system. The best solution, is to install the latest
+ libtool AND compile yourself pspell package. I can't help more
+ than that in this issue.
+ After successfully compiled and used sylpheed with spell checking,
+ the same problem can appear if you upgrade your libtool to a
+ version which libltdl is incompatible to your older one. The
+ symptoms are a crash when starting to compose. Disabling spell
+ checking avoids the problem. The solution should be to recompile pspell.
+
+ ii) New installed ispell dictionary are not detected
+
+ Installing a new ispell dictionary needs an additional step. Go
+ to the 'pkgdatadir' and run 'make-ispell-pwli'. You may need to
+ su root.
+
+* simplify subject string
+ It is possible to remove parts of string from the subject line.
+ Example: [Sylpheed-claws-users] This is a test
+ becomes: This is a test
+ This is a per folder property. Right click on a folder and select
+ property, enable Simplify Subject RegExp check box. Example
+ regexp for the above is: \[Sylpheed-claws-(devel|users)\]
+ Another example for the Sylpheed mailing list (not claws!) is:
+ \[sylpheed:[0-9]{5}\]
There are a lot more options. If you find one, don't hesitate to
mention it.
-How to contribute
------------------
-Write a patch, submit it to the Sylpheed ML, Sylpheed Claws Users ML,
-or bother any of the current Claws developers. There's no way to
-predict whether your patch will or will not end up in Claws or Main.
-Mostly they will. And if not, there's probably nothing wrong with
-your code - or maybe there is. Generally, adding a cool or useful
-thing to your patch will attract a lot of attention of other users
-or developers.
+4. How to contribute
+--------------------
+
+Sylpheed Main:
+
+ submit it to the Sylpheed ML, Hiroyuki, or Paul Mangan
+ (for incorporation on the Sylpheed Patches page)
+
+Sylpheed Claws:
+
+ It is highly recommended to use the sourceforge project page
+ of claws. Check:
+ http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=384600&group_id=25528&func=browse
+
+ If that's too troublesome, either contact Paul Mangan or consider
+ posting to the sylpheed claws users mailing list.
+ Bugs can be reported in the same way; the recommended web page:
+ http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=25528&atid=384598
-How to request features
------------------------
+ Ofcourse you can also post to the sylpheed claws users
+ mailing list.
+
+Also, we really try to incorporate good contributions, but sometimes we
+don't have enough time. If the contribution is really big, or requires
+a long time to stabilize, send a mail to Paul Mangan. We can probably
+arrange access to the Claws branch.
+
+
+
+5. How to request features
+--------------------------
Ask around in both Sylpheed ML and Sylpheed Claws Users ML. Note
that some developers may already thought about your feature, may
perhaps be implementing it - or the feature was already discussed
-and rejected for whatever reason. Don't complain, be patient. Or
-you might want to go ahead and hack a patch for it. That would
-be very cool! (c. How to contribute)
+and rejected for whatever reason. You might want to go ahead and
+hack a patch for it. (That would be very cool!) Another
+possibility is to use the Feature Request Tracker at the
+sourceforge project page.
+
+
+
+6. History
+----------
+TODO