notmuch performance: chert vs flint, compacting

[notmuch-wiki] / emacstips.mdwn

diff --git a/emacstips.mdwn b/emacstips.mdwn
index 497f2d88abfdc241fec49db5db04aad76041df41..db1655019831ef436b299c97bd03b8270649d2e3 100644 (file)
--- a/emacstips.mdwn
+++ b/emacstips.mdwn
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 [[!img notmuch-logo.png alt="Notmuch logo" class="left"]]
 #Tips and Tricks for using notmuch with Emacs
 
+[[!toc levels=2]]
+
 The main Notmuch message reading client is **notmuch.el**, which is an
 [emacs](http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/) major mode, and is
 included in the notmuch package.
@@ -172,14 +174,26 @@ useful to you.
 
 ## Viewing HTML messages with an external viewer
 
-The emacs client can often display an HTML message inline, but it
-sometimes fails for one reason or another, (or is perhaps inadequate
-if you really need to see the graphical presentation of the HTML
-message).
-
-In this case, it can be useful to display the message in an external
-viewer, such as a web browser. Here's a little script that Keith
-Packard wrote, which he calls `view-html`:
+The emacs client can display an HTML message inline using either the
+`html2text` library or some text browser, like w3m or lynx. This is
+controlled by the `mm-text-html-renderer` variable.
+
+The first option is theorically better, because it can generate
+strings formatted for emacs and do whatever you want, e.g., substitute
+text inside <b> tags for bold text in the buffer. The library, however
+is still in a very early development phase and cannot yet process
+properly many elements, like tables and <style> directives, and even
+the generated text is often poorly formatted.
+
+Among the available browsers, w3m seems to do a better job converting
+the html, and if you have the w3m emacs package, you can use it,
+instead of the w3m-standalone, and thus preserve the text formatting.
+
+But if the rendering fails for one reason or another, or if you really
+need to see the graphical presentation of the HTML message, it can be
+useful to display the message in an external viewer, such as a web
+browser. Here's a little script that Keith Packard wrote, which he
+calls `view-html`:
 
                #!/bin/sh
                dir=`mktemp -d`