chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (04/08/84)
I went and hacked in the recordings patch that was posted by ihuxx!ignatz.
Since that was for the USG version of postnews, some changes had to be
made. Below is a version of postnews that will run on BSD system (and, I
believe, V7). It also includes Prentiss' fix for ignoring distributions
when being fed files. Enjoy!
chuq
-postnews -
#! /bin/sh
: '@(#)postnews.v7 2.8 4/23/83'
:
: 'modified 12/8/83 by Prentiss Riddle (riddle@ut-sally.UUCP) not to '
: ' ignore a Distribution specification when invoked with a '
: ' filename argument. '
:
: 'modified 4/7/84 by chuq von rospach (nsc!chuqui) to print out '
: 'recordings where appropriate. Based on version posted for usg by'
: 'nwuxd!dbaker'
:
: postnews: version 1.4 of 4/7/84
:
: '@(#)postnews 1.4 (NSC) 4/7/84'
_NEWSLIB=/usr/lib/news
if test $# -gt 1 ; then
/bin/echo "$0: Too many args"
exit 1
fi
if test $# -eq 1 -a ! -r "$1" ; then
/bin/echo "$0: Can't read $1"
exit 1
fi
/bin/echo -n "Subject: "
read title
/bin/echo -n "Newsgroups (general): "
read ng
if test x$ng = x ; then
ng=general
fi
: play recorded message
if test -s ${_NEWSLIB}/recording ; then
_rec1=${_NEWSLIB}/`cat -s ${_NEWSLIB}/recording|grep $ng|sed "s/^.* //"`
_tmp=`echo $ng |sed "s/\..*//"`
_rec2=${_NEWSLIB}/`cat -s ${_NEWSLIB}/recording|grep ${_tmp}.all|sed "s/^.* //"`
fi
if test -f ${_rec1} ; then
cat -s ${_rec1}
fi
if test -f ${_rec2} ; then
cat -s ${_rec2}
fi
/bin/echo -n "Distribution ($ng): "
read dist
if test x$dist = x; then
dist=$ng
fi
t=/tmp/pn$$
trap "sleep 1; cp $t $HOME/dead.article ; echo saved in $HOME/dead.article ; rm -f $t; exit" 1
trap "" 2
/bin/echo "Subject: $title" > $t
/bin/echo "Newsgroups: $ng" >> $t
if test $dist != $ng; then
/bin/echo "Distribution: $dist" >> $t
fi
/bin/echo "" >> $t
case $# in
0)
${EDITOR-vi} $t
cd /tmp
if inews -h <$t
then
:
else
if cat $t >>$HOME/dead.article
then
/bin/echo Article saved in $HOME/dead.article
fi
fi
;;
1)
cat $1 >>$t
cd /tmp
inews -h < $t
;;
esac
sleep 1
rm -f $t
--
From under the bar at Callahan's: Chuq Von Rospach
{amd70,fortune,hplabs,menlo70}!nsc!chuqui (408) 733-2600 x242
A toast! To absent friends... {clink}joe@fluke.UUCP (Joe Kelsey) (04/09/84)
Newsgroups: net.news.b Subject: Re: recordings in postnews, BSD version References: <828@nsc.UUCP> What is all this bruhaha (hah-hah-hah) about recordinge in postnews? Inews is responsible for sending out recordings, unless you have some other version of inews which doesn't play the recordings, or you have broken the recording code in inews somehow. As far as I can tell, postnews was never supposed to play the recording. The recording should be played AFTER composing the message, but BEFORE you send it, which is EXACTLY what inews does! If you happen to have placed the recording file incorrectly so that inews can't find it, then maybe you should fix the original problem rather than fixing a problem that wasn't there in the first place! /Joe
chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (04/11/84)
The big problem with recordings in inews is that it doesn't work with
vnews and nicely garbages the h*ll out of the screen. Besides, since 99+%
of the original messages tend to go out through postnews, that is where I
want recordings. I see no sense in telling people while they are following
up to someone what the topic is about. It is the new messages that need the
reminders (this might now be as true for something like net.all reminding
people about proprietary information as some Bell sites do, but that isn't
a problem here). I made the following assumptions:
- I don't need recordings in readnews or vnews
- Everyone uses postnews to post new articles
- That is where recordings are needed
- People smart enough to write their own replacements for postnews
are smart enough that they don't need constant reminders on how
to use the net.
Inews is a big enough hack as it is, and already does way to much for its
own good (this is why I am hacking bnproc into it as well, of course).
Anything I can do to clean it up a bit is well worth while.
chuq
--
From under the bar at Callahan's: Chuq Von Rospach
{amd70,fortune,hplabs,menlo70}!nsc!chuqui (408) 733-2600 x242
A toast! To absent friends... {clink}joe@fluke.UUCP (Joe Kelsey) (04/16/84)
> The big problem with recordings in inews is that it doesn't work with > vnews and nicely garbages the h*ll out of the screen. So fix vnews so that it does work! I claim that you are trying to fix something (postnews) that isn't broken! > Besides, since 99+% > of the original messages tend to go out through postnews, that is where I > want recordings. If 99+% of the messages go through postnews, then they also go through inews, since postnews calls inews. So the recordings are already there! > I see no sense in telling people while they are following > up to someone what the topic is about. It is the new messages that need the > reminders (this might now be as true for something like net.all reminding > people about proprietary information as some Bell sites do, but that isn't > a problem here). I don't understand this at all! What are you talking about? > I made the following assumptions: > - I don't need recordings in readnews or vnews So fix readnews or vnews! > - Everyone uses postnews to post new articles > - That is where recordings are needed That is where recordings already are! > - People smart enough to write their own replacements for postnews > are smart enough that they don't need constant reminders on how > to use the net. Such people should also be smart enough to figure out how to prevent inews from playing the recording. My main point still holds: If readnews or vnews is broken (or if you perceive a missing feature) FIX WHAT IS BROKEN! Postnews is not broken! It doesn't need to be fixed! If you want to claim that you have a combination of changes to postnews and rnews/inews which moves the playing of recordings from inews to postnews, I suppose that I could accept that, but that is NOT fixing something that is broken. It is changing the functionality/adding new functionality. BTW, if anyone wants to know how to stop inews from playing the recording, use the undocumented -D flag to inews. This flag is not for user consumption and should only be used by softwear which calls inews in a controlled environment. /Joe
chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (04/19/84)
>> The big problem with recordings in inews is that it doesn't work with >> vnews and nicely garbages the h*ll out of the screen. > >So fix vnews so that it does work! I claim that you are trying to fix >something (postnews) that isn't broken! It all depends on your philosophy. To fix inews to run recordings properly would mean to teach it screen handling ala curses. Inews is already a large and complicated beastie that I am trying to get smaller and less complicated. I feel that the job of informing users of things like recordings should be done by the programs that interact with the users. Inews is supposed to be the program that does the database access, and it should do only that job. Working with the users should be left to the front ends. >> Besides, since 99+% >> of the original messages tend to go out through postnews, that is where I >> want recordings. > >If 99+% of the messages go through postnews, then they also go through >inews, since postnews calls inews. So the recordings are already there! See my previous remarks about what inews should be doing and what it shouldn't. >> I see no sense in telling people while they are following >> up to someone what the topic is about. It is the new messages that need the >> reminders (this might now be as true for something like net.all reminding >> people about proprietary information as some Bell sites do, but that isn't >> a problem here). > >I don't understand this at all! What are you talking about? I wasn't clear. The person who is following up a message is not choosing the topics that his followup is being sent to. They are sent to the topics that the original message was in. Since he is not deciding where to send his message, asking him if he is using the proper topics is silly. The special case where someone changes topics on a followup is usually done by people who know what they are doing, and I don't feel like they need to be babysat anyway. AT&T uses recordings to remind their people not to discuss proprietary information. This case is not handled by ignoring recordings in readnews and vnews, but I feel that this is excessive babysitting and so I don't miss it. (AT&T may think differently, of course) >> I made the following assumptions: >> - I don't need recordings in readnews or vnews > >So fix readnews or vnews! If recordings are in inews, I can fix readnews and vnews all week and inews will still take over the terminal and write things on it. I would much rather fix inews by removing the recordings and put them where they belong, which is in the program that does the user interface. >> - People smart enough to write their own replacements for postnews >> are smart enough that they don't need constant reminders on how >> to use the net. > >Such people should also be smart enough to figure out how to prevent >inews from playing the recording. I am sure they are. The point is, inews shouldn't be doing this in the first place. I think I am getting repetitive on this point, but my philosophy is that a program should do one thing well. Inews was not designed to do user interface stuff (read the man page) and having it do recordings causes it to interface in one isolated way. Unless you are willing to teach inews how to do this for each possible interface, it will not do it right in all cases. My solution is to try to steer inews back to what it was supposed to be, which is a back end, and let the front ends do what they are supposed to do, which is work with the user and keep them informed. >My main point still holds: If readnews or vnews is broken (or if you >perceive a missing feature) FIX WHAT IS BROKEN! Postnews is not >broken! It doesn't need to be fixed! If you want to claim that you >have a combination of changes to postnews and rnews/inews which moves >the playing of recordings from inews to postnews, I suppose that I >could accept that, but that is NOT fixing something that is broken. It >is changing the functionality/adding new functionality. I did fix what was broken. Inews was broken because it was doing something it wasn't supposed to do - recordings. Postnews, which should have done recordings, didn't. readnews and vnews, which don't do recordings, still don't because I don't feel they have to. I think what we have here is a philosophical difference of opinion on the lines of cat -v. I don't plan on beating it into the ground any further unless interesting new points come up, because if you agree with me I don't need to convince you, and if you disagree I'll probably never change you mind. Either way screaming at each other will simply make life miserable for everyone... chuq -- From under the bar at Callahan's: Chuq Von Rospach {amd70,fortune,hplabs,menlo70}!nsc!chuqui (408) 733-2600 x242 Never give your heart to a stranger, unless you are sure that you are dead.