[MlMt] Plist confusion: How can I convert my binary plist files into the current default JSON-like format?

[Bill Cole]

On 2025-07-29 at 20:54:13 UTC-0400 (Wed, 30 Jul 2025 10:54:13 +1000)
leo <mailmate at lists.freron.com>
is rumored to have said:

> Hello fellow MailMaters
>
> Enjoying MailMate? I do so immensely! 😄
>
> However, there are little things I cannot get to work. So currently I 
> try to edit my old MailMate keybindings. I have them in the (old?) 
> binary format. (I edited them as XML, converting back and forth with 
> `plutil`.)
>
> Now I see MailMate’s default plist files (`Gmail.plist`, 
> `Postbox.plist` and `Standard.plist`) are in a JSON-like style. 
> `Standard.plist` starts e.g. like this:
>
> ```
> {
> 	"\UF728" = "deleteMessage:";         // ⌦
> 	" "      = "scrollPageDownOrNextMessage:"; // Space (alternatively it 
> can be bound to scrollPageDown: or scrollPageDownOrNextUnreadMessage:)
> 	"$ "     = "scrollPageUp:";          // Shift-space
> ...
> ```
>
> Going forward I would like to convert my keybindings to this new 
> format.

It is actually a very old format: NeXT property list.

> So I tried on the command line
>
>     plutil -convert json Leos.plist
>
> But the output is in a different format (even more “jsonic” than 
> the one above) It looks like this:
[...]
> **Trouble is, this format doesn’t seem to be readable by MailMate.**
>
> **How can I convert my binary plist files into the JSON-like format 
> the default files use?**

As far as I know, there is no way. MailMate does understand the 'xml1' 
format produced by plutil.


-- 
  Bill Cole
  bill at scconsult.com or billcole at apache.org
  (AKA @grumpybozo at toad.social and many *@billmail.scconsult.com 
addresses)
  Not Currently Available For Hire