[RFC] Remove additional spaces when quoting already-quoted lines

[Dennis Preiser]

On Mon, Aug 01, 2022 at 10:40:22AM +1000, raf via Mutt-users wrote:
> But if you want this behaviour (despite any ambiguity),
> mutt doesn't need to change. You can set the editor
> parameter to a script that modifies the quoted reply
> to your liking before invoking the real editor.
> Something like this perhaps:
> 
>     #!/bin/sh
> 
>     # Change "> > > blah" quotes to ">>> blah" before editing
> 
>     perl -i -e '
>         sub requote { my $s = $_[0]; $s =~ s/ >/>/g; $s; }
>         while (<>) { s/^([> ]+)/requote($1)/e; print; }
>     ' "$@"
> 
>     ${VISUAL:-${EDITOR:-vi}} "$@"
> 
> Note that this script will cope with a mixture like "> >>> > >> blah"
> and make it consistent like ">>>>>>> blah". And it won't add a final
> space if there isn't one in the input.
> 
> I'm sure there's a better way to do it, but this'll do.

I use vim and have the following vim9script function in my vimrc:
 
| #---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| # fix mail quotes for mutt, e.g. '> >foo' -> '>> foo'
| # muttrc: set editor='vim -c ":call FixMailQuotes()"'
| # cursor placement only useful if edit_headers is set in mutt
| #---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| def g:FixMailQuotes()
| 	# find first body line after headers
| 	var first_body_line = search('^$') + 1
| 	# compress quote marks
| 	while search('^>[> ]* >', 'w') > 0
| 		silent! s/> >/>>/e
| 	endwhile
| 	# add space after last '>' if none is present
| 	silent! :%s/^[>]*\zs>\ze[^> ]/> /e
| 	# place cursor at first line of body
| 	cursor(first_body_line, 1)
| enddef

Not better, but gets along without perl (of course only if you use
vim). Quotes are merged and it is ensured that there is a space after
the last quote character.

'> >> >foo' becomes '>>>> foo')

The cursor is set in the first body line after the headers. Yes, this
only makes sense if edit_headers is set in mutt.

In muttrc one has to set editor like this:

| set editor='vim-c ":call FixMailQuotes()"'

Maybe this inspires someone.

Dennis