[ANN] mbox packer plugin version 1.10 released

[djk]

I use EML Viewer and it shows the mails nice formatted.

[Juergen]

Yep. Since it is not especially for mbox files but generally for mail files, it can be used together with my plugin and also alone for separate mail files. This is more versatile than directly building a mechanism into the mbox plugin for showing mails.

The EML Viewer plugin doesn't display special German characters correctly, though.´There are also some other problems, e.g. from a mail at wich I wanted to look the plugin only displayed the last 4 lines. I'll send a concerning note to the author.

Regards, Juergen

[djk]

2Juergen
Have you tried to change the wlx_eml.ini file to see correctly the German characters?

[Juergen]

Yes, I've tried to do so, but without success.

Regards, Juergen

[Juergen]

Hi all,

I've just released mbox version 1.10 beta 2:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
* fixed:
- Small bug in decoding quoted-printable encoded subjects.
- Bug in parsing e-mail headers that was introduced in v1.10 beta 1.
- 2 bugs in the enclosed demo program of v1.10 beta 1.

* changed:
- Slightly more consistent check of files whether they are valid mbox
files which can be handled by the plugin.
- Functionality of "Test Archive(s)" extended.
- Empty directories now can be packed (to mbox files of size 0).
This is consistent with unpacking mbox files of size 0, and with
the way Total Commander's internal ZIP packer works.
- Some internal changes.
- Enclosed demo program improved.
- Enhanced documentation.

+ new:
- Total Commander asks for confirmation whether it may overwrite a file
in an open archive, if the archive is associated with the concerning
packer plugin. But Total Commander does not do so for archives
that are not associated with the packer plugin (tested with TC 6.53).
This is unexpected and can cause data loss! In these cases now the
plugin asks the user for confirmation.
- International language support.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Documentation: http://home.arcor.de/luethje/prog/mbox_en.htm

Download: http://home.arcor.de/luethje/prog/index.htm

This is probably the last beta version of 1.10. I would appreciate it, if a native English speaker would check the English language file.
Send me files for other languages within 2 weeks if you want them to be included in the 1.10 final release.

Regards,
Juergen

[Juergen]

Hello Wilhelm!

There was a post from you in this thread, posted Tue Oct 18, 2005 2:46 am. I read it, prepared a reply offline, and now I was going to post the reply here.

But your post is not here anymore. Did you remove it, or is there a problem with the forum software, or with my browser or whatever?

Regards,
Juergen

[Wilhelm M.]

Hello Juergen!

Yes, I have removed it because it was mostly nonsense. In fact, there is a description of the plugin usage in your docu, but it is somewhat hidden. There was a post by Botak that sounded as if he had problems with the docu, too. He asked how to compare/synchronise two mailbox files. Maybe the docu should be better structured? In section "usage" the reader learns not very much about the usage, whereas in the next section "features" there really useful hints for usage. You should also express clearly which functions are provided by the plugin and which are built-in TC functions. Things like that.
BTW I have used the old version of your plugin since several years and was very pleased by it. The most obvious improvement of the new version seems to be the ability to store E-mail files in a new mbx archive. I'm not shure, but were not most of the other features (e.g. viewing files, extracting etc.) also present in the older version?

[rolandd]

2Juergen,

Yes I had some problem with the documentation also. Mostly the issue for is/was that the features are listed but do not know how to invoke them.

As for using the TC internal synchronize dirs, I get the message: Cannot copy files from zip to zip when I start the synchronization. While copying using F5 works fine. Compare by content gives me ? in the status box between two files, when I double click, it says the files are identical unless the files are actually different.

The Dutch language file is included here but how do I get mbox to use the Dutch language file?

2Sheepdog
Thanks for the elaborate explanation.

2All
Dutch Translation/Nederlandse vertaling (UUE Encode):
begin 644 Nederlands.lng
M.R!$=71C:"!L86YG=6%G92!F:6QE(&9O<B!M8F]X(#$N,3`@8F5T82`R#0H[
M($%U=&AO<CH@2G5E<F=E;B!,=65T:&IE(#QP<F]G+FQU92!!5"!A<F-O<BYD
M93X-"CL@5')A;G-L871O<CH@4F]L86YD($1A;&UU;&1E<B`\<F1A;&UU;&1E
M<D!H;W1M86EL+F-O;3X-"CL@1&\@;F]T(&-H86YG92!T:&ES(&9I;&4A#0H-
M"EML86YG70T*,#$](DEN<&%K(&UO9'5L92!V;V]R(%5N:7@@92UM86EL;6%P
M(&)E<W1A;F1E;EQN5F5R<VEE(#$N,3`@8F5T82`R+"`B#0HP,CTB3W9E<B`B
M#0HP,STB3W9E<G-C:')I:G9E;CH@)7-<;B`@("`@("`@("`E9"!">71E+"`E
M,#)D+B4P,F0N)60@)3`R9#HE,#)D.B4P,F1<;EQN365T(&)E<W1A;F0Z("5S
M(#]<;B`@("`@("`@("`E9"!">71E+"`E,#)D+B4P,F0N)60@)3`R9#HE,#)D
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M<F=E9&%A;B%<;E-T=75R(&$N=2YB+B!H970@8F5S=&%N9"`G97@N97)R)R!N
M86%R(#QP<F]G+FQU94!A<F-O<BYD93XN(@T*,#@](B9/=F5R<V-H<FEJ=F5N
M(@T*,#D](B9!;&QE<R!O=F5R<V-H<FEJ=F5N(@T*,3`](B9/=F5R<VQA86XB
M#0HQ,3TB)D%N;G5L97)E;B(-"C$R/2)/=F5R<V-H<FEJ9B!A;&QE(&]U)F1E
<<F4B#0HQ,STB06QL97,@3W9E<G,F;&%A;B(-"@``
`
end
sum -r/size 57976/838

[Juergen]

Hello Wilhelm & Botak,

thanks for the feedback. I think a problem with the documentation is that it might be too comprehensive, so that it's not always easy to find the information one is looking for. But in the past, people had mailed me and asked me to add this and that to the documentation.
Maybe the section "Usage" should better be called "General use", and the section "Features" should better be called "Working with archives" or so?
However, general information how to work with archives is provided in the TC help file. I don't think that it makes sense when I duplicate all that information. And in the documentation of mbox it reads after after the list of features:
"For more information see Total Commander help, Chapter 3.e. 'Archive handling (ZIP etc)'." I think I'll stress this point more in the new documentation, and move the sentence to the beginning of the concerning section.


2Wilhelm:
Quoting myself from the first post in this thread:
"Generally speaking, the main new features are a new naming system for extracted mails, and the ability to change mbox files. So the plugin now is useful for synchronizing mails in different mbox files."


2Botak:

As for using the TC internal synchronize dirs, I get the message: Cannot copy files from zip to zip when I start the synchronization. While copying using F5 works fine. Compare by content gives me ? in the status box between two files, when I double click, it says the files are identical unless the files are actually different.

These are general TC issues, which are not specific for my plugin. Some time ago, I was also confused about the way 'synchronize dirs' works with archives, and asked Mr. Ghisler, see Archive synchronisieren (in German, sorry).

How to use your own language file is described in the documentation under Install/Language:
"To get a file in your own language, translate the file 'deutsch.lng' or 'english.lng', and name it 'default.lng'. If a file with this name exists in that directory, it will always be used as language file."

Thanks for your Dutch translation. Unfortunately, it contains a seriuous mistake. After decoding, it reads:

06="Waarschuwing:\nSommige programma's kunnen het emailmap bestand %s niet goed lezen.\n%s"

mbox expects %s to appear only once in that message. When it tries to use your text, mbox crashes. I have already corrected my copy, but you might want to remove the text from the public forum here, so that other people will not have problems with it. I'll make the final mbox 1.10 test language files very carefully before using them.

Regards,
Juergen

[Wilhelm M.]

Hallo Jürgen!

I think you have got our point and I'm shure you will do fine .

Zitat:
Maybe the section "Usage" should better be called "General use", and the section "Features" should better be called "Working with archives" or so?

Well, what you give under the title "usage" is rather background knowledge. so the title is misleading (thats what happened to me before I posted my first message ...). I think there should be one or two sentences the clearly state your plugin simply enables the use of normal TC functions with mbox files. If you say (in features) that synchronisation of mbx files is a feature of your plugin the user will expect that a menu appears where he/she can select "Synchronise". Only as an example.

Hm the post is already long.... However, I have made a little test. I took an Opera mbs file which is correctly recognized by your plugin. I copied the file to another location and opened both original and copy with your plugin.
Here is the contents:
aon.962051920_2A3770DA1(1).eml
aon.962051920_2A3770DA1(2).eml
aon.962051920_2A377CB71(1).eml
aon.962051920_2A377CB71(2).eml
aon.962051920_2A3A90591(1).eml
aon.962051920_2A3A90591(2).eml
A comparison naturally gives the result: no differences. Okay.
Now I deleted the first file in the list only in the copy. The file list became:
aon.962051920_2A3770DA1.eml
aon.962051920_2A377CB71(1).eml
aon.962051920_2A377CB71(2).eml
aon.962051920_2A3A90591(1).eml
aon.962051920_2A3A90591(2).eml
You see? The ....A1(1) file was deleted and the A1(2) was automatically renamed to A1. Now the comparison gives a really unwanted result: 3 files are marked as different! And I have only deleted 1 file....
Thats a bit of a problem, is'nt it?

[rolandd]

2Juergen
Call me stupid I read the help numerous times and totally blanked I think on the language. Thanks for making it so obvious

My Dutch language file in this thread I have replaced with a new copy. Thanks for pointing out the error.

I read the thread you mentioned and I understand now but it is indeed the wrong errormessage and I agree with you we should have the error: Cannot synchronize two zipfiles. Despite the explanation, I think support for syncing packed files would be a great enhancement.

[Juergen]

Hello Wilhelm!

I think there should be one or two sentences the clearly state your plugin simply enables the use of normal TC functions with mbox files.

The first section of the documentation only contains 2 sentences. The second sentence is:
"This packer plugin basically makes it possible for Total Commander to treat mbox files like directories of mail files."

If you say (in features) that synchronisation of mbx files is a feature of your plugin the user will expect that a menu appears where he/she can select "Synchronise".

I do not think that I say that synchronisation of mbx files is a feature of the plugin. The 'features' section begins with:
"This plugin makes it possible for Total Commander to".
However, since this seems to be ambiguous, I'll try to find clearer words to express it. Thanks.

Concerning your test, yes I see the problem. This is not a bug, but a "side effect" of the new naming system. The plugin does not "remember", that previously there has been another mail with the same name, which then has been deleted. This can happen in rare cases, when mails have the same Subject and the same Date field. I also produced such things for testing, but among my thousands of regular e-mails, I never had such a case.
More funny things will happen. When you copy a mail say "test.eml" to an open mbox, after copying when the mail is inside the mbox, its name will have changed to something like "test_309DA2C58.eml". This might also be unexpected and confusing, since things like that do not happen when you copy a file to a ZIP archive. I don't know how to avoid such problems. Any suggestions?

I think the new naming system is much better than the old one, because the mail name created by the plugin almost always only depends on characteristics of the mail itself. Many users have asked for such a system.
With the old naming system, in order to get unique mail names, just a serial number depending on the position of the mail inside the mbox file was appended to the name. Say you have one mailbox, containing threee mails A,B,C, and another mailbox, containing the same mails in a different order, say C,A,B. The old naming system would name the messages inside the first mbox file A.1, B.2, C.3 and inside the second mbox file C.1, A.2, B.3. So it looked as if there are no identical files! The new naming system produces identical names for identical mails in different mbox files. Suggestions for solving the problems mentioned above are appreciated.

Regads,
Juergen

[Juergen]

Hello Wilhelm & Botak,

I have changed the documentation. I split the section formerly called "Usage" into the sections "Other programs and mbox files" and "For programmers". The section formerly called "Features" now is called "Usage". At the beginning of that section, I've tried to state clearly that the plugin only enables the use of normal TC functions with mbox files. I hope the documantation is better now. Thank you!

Regards,
Juergen

[Wilhelm M.]

Hi Jürgen!

Thats much much better! Thanks too!
(Warum nicht gleich so.... )

As to the previously mentioned problem with synchronisation, I don't know enough about mbox to suggest a solution. I understand that the naming of files is an internal necessity of the mbox format and from what I learn in your docu I would say you made the best of it. But the problem is not so rarely found as you said. In my backup of Opera Mails (I don't use Opera Mail any more), which are 33 mbs files, I find in every second file some mails with numbers (1) and (2). Which means that the synchronisation could potentially fail with approx. a half of my mailbox files.
However this is purely theoretical because I actually don't want to sync those files. But others will.

[Wilhelm M.]

Hello Jürgen!

EML View: I have canged the coding to ISO-8859-1 and the plugin displays German specials nicely!
My wlx_eml.ini now reads:

[Global]
enc_win=ISO-8859-1
ext=.eml;.msg
font_name=Courier
font_size=12
enc_def=WINDOWS-1251
col_back=clWhite
col_text=clBlack
col_header=clBlue
col_att=clPurple
col_q1=clGreen
col_q2=clFuchsia

So the combination of your mbx plugin and EML View is really a hit!