Why I Love Free/Open Source Software (or, unity maildir indicator applet take 2)
EDIT: with Chris' consent, the script is now released under the WTFPL.
So this morning I wandered over here to my blog to post about ethics and software, specifically on the topic of why I appreciate Free Software and avoid Apple products, but I noticed this comment on a post about a script I had written (good thing I decided to look through my auto-filtered comment spam folder!). Chris Irwin had found the script, and made it better, implementing a feature I had not bothered to figure out how to do for myself, and posted the source.
This is the greatness of open software: find something that is almost what you need, but not quite, so change it! Share, and share alike!
I took a look at his code, and adopted it myself. And then I modified it more, to make it a little better still. Here's the latest version: maildir-indicator.py Chris licensed his changes under the GPL3, so the same license applies to this.
August 8th, 2011 - 23:53
Just serving a notice that as Brad’s original code was what he considered to be WTFPL, I’ve done the same to mine.
August 11th, 2011 - 11:47
This looks great. At the risk of asking a stupid question… can you post instructions on how to actually install it and have it run on desktop login? When I try to run it from the terminal, I get an “invalid syntax” error at line 185:
if header_name = “From”:
^
August 11th, 2011 - 11:47
Sorry: the “^” should be under the “=” in the error message
August 11th, 2011 - 15:05
Oops! There *was* a syntax error there; just replace the = with == (or redownload it, I fixed the error). Stick it somewhere in your home directory (I have a .bin directory for scripts and such), then start it. You can get it to autostart in System Settings -> Startup Applications, then click add and point it to the script (make sure the script is executable first). That should do it!
August 11th, 2011 - 19:49
Thanks! That worked temporarily, but the indicator disappeared from the mail notifications menu after a minute or two (maybe this is intended? i.e. when there are no new messages?). Also, I couldn’t get the MUA_LAUNCH_COMMAND to work by clicking on my inbox in the menu. I tried installing Chris Irwin’s latest PPA version (0.3), and it works well on both counts, though the new message color indication disappears even if you haven’t clicked on the notifications menu (i.e. you could miss it if you were up and away from your screen for a minute).
In any case, thanks to you both for sharing this! Happy to provide any more feedback if that’s helpful.
August 12th, 2011 - 08:58
Brad, could you drop me an email at chris -at- chrisirwin.ca? I don’t have your contact information and had a question for you.
August 12th, 2011 - 14:23
Hey Chris,
I sent you one last week, but just sent another. My guess is it got spam filtered; my email address is not from this domain, it’s from bradstewart.ca.