scott@grlab.UUCP (Scott Blachowicz) (05/13/89)
Hi-
I'm using the version of the notes program that HP has grabbed and
enhanced. There are a couple of things that I would like to see done to
it, but I don't have access to the sources. Would it be possible to get
HP to either enhance it some and release it or to put it (with sources)
onto a contributed library tape?
A couple of things that ought to be done...
-Have the nfarchive program store compressed archives. Right now I've
setup my own scripts to do the nfarchive on a particular group, then
compress the resulting output file into my own directory structure.
It does the saving into a filename that looks like
".../comp.sys.hp/1989.05.12.13:13" or some such. I compress it into
".../comp/sys/hp/890512.1313.Z".
-Have a better way to restore nfarchive'd notes to a notes group.
(i.e. retain original information)
-Have it handle moderated groups. Either it doesn't now or I don't
know about it.
Now, it would be really nice if...
-it could handle crosspostings
-easy way to crosspost? (maybe that's not a good idea :{) )
-text of crossposting wasn't duplicated into all of the posting
groups
-the sequencer would recognize that you've read the article once,
and not show it to you again (unless you somehow request that it do
so)
I've never seen rn or any other news readers, maybe I should check them
out...
Scott Blachowicz
USPS: Graphicus UUCP: ...!hpubvwa!grlab!scott
150 Lake Str S, #206 VoicePh: 206/828-4691
Kirkland, WA 98033 FAX: 206/828-4236' Sabatella) (05/17/89)
>Now, it would be really nice if... > -it could handle crosspostings Hear, here! It is especially annoying when people speak of "editing the newsgroups line", etc. when we don't have that capability. It would also be nice to able to control the distribution a la `rn' (local, usa, continent, world, etc). >I've never seen rn or any other news readers, maybe I should check them >out... User interface wise, `rn' leaves a lot to be desired. Notes and responses appear in one continuos stream, rather than as basenote/responses. The default "sequencer" displays the notes in strict time order, rather than showing all "responses" to one basenote first before moving on to the next. There is no "index" page. `rn' does give you a lot more options (cross-posting, distribution control, "kill" files to cause the sequencer to ignore topics you don't care about, etc), and does have a "search for next followup" command which gives a crude and painfully (and I do mean painfully) slow imitation of the basenote/response idea. Of course, as an ex-Plato-ite, perhaps I am biased.
mayer@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM (Niels Mayer) (05/19/89)
In article <5570186@hpfcdc.HP.COM> marc@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Marc `Play Ball!' Sabatella) writes: >User interface wise, `rn' leaves a lot to be desired. Notes and responses >appear in one continuos stream, rather than as basenote/responses. There is an option to make it show basenote/responses in sequence. You can set that up via the RNINIT envariable. I have mine set to: setenv RNINIT "-e -m -S -M" >a "search for next followup" command which gives a crude >and painfully (and I do mean painfully) slow imitation of the basenote/response >idea. Doesn't seem that bad to me. It's running rn on an HP9000s840 here... The main thing that I like about 'rn' isn't the program itself, but rather, its format for storing articles, which happens to be in the exact same way that the MH mail system stores it's messages. That way, I can do nifty things like: # hplabsz-2-~> pick +/usr/spool/news/comp/sys/hp -from marc@hpfcdc # 2055 # 2152 # hplabsz-3-~> scan select # 2055 05/01 marc@hpfcdc.HP.CO Re: HP-UX 6.5/X11 problems<<>We just got a 9000/ # 2152 05/16 marc@hpfcdc.HP.CO Re: notes availability/status from HP?<<>Now, it I can also use rn's macro facilities to store news articles into an MH mail folder, which is really good for packrats like myself. With this macro, I just hit the ` key, followed by the desired folder name, and the article gets shipped off to the desired folder. To get this, put something like this in your ~/.rnmac file: ` %(%m=[ap]?| /usr/local/lib/mh/rcvstore +/net/hplnpm/usr/local/mayer/Mail/) So personally, I prefer 'rn' over notes. If for no other reason than its usage of a standard, sane, open, unixese file storage format. -- Niels.
jewett@hpl-opus.HP.COM (Bob Jewett) (05/20/89)
> So personally, I prefer 'rn' over notes. If for no other reason than its > usage of a standard, sane, open, unixese file storage format. > > -- Niels. The present version of HP-internal notes uses such a format when you do a "save". You can, for example, run mailx (Berkeley Mail) on a file of saved messages. Very old versions used to save it without proper mail headers. Bob Jewett