l-aron@obelix.liu.se (Lars Aronsson) (05/05/87)
Followup-To: Smail: Rydsvagen 256 A:10, S-582 48 Linkoping, Sweden Here's a description of a newsreader. Due to lack of time, I will not be able to hack it myself. Perhaps it exists already. Please, let me know! If not, I hope that my ideas will inspire someone to do the job. Background: I currently use Larry Walls "rn", which, according to news.announce.newusers, seems to be the best so far. I really enjoy it, its variables, and its follow-up and reply commands. However, there are a few more functions I would want to incorporate. Specification: * Equal treatment of "messages" in the spool/news directories, in mailboxes under spool/mail, and in private mailboxes. This includes possibility to read mail and to qoute mail letters in news articles. * Handling of several messages simultanously (sp?), e.g. for qouting or moderating. (What programmes do moderators use today?) * Possibility to run in silent mode, e.g. for automatic storage of recipes. * More programmability than rn. * Possibility to read existing ".newsrc" and "active" files. Hints: To write a news-reader entirely in shell scripts, would make it too slow. To write it in C, like Larry Walls "rn", would work. However, I'd rather go for the GNU-EMACS LISP. The only work needed, is to write low-level routines to extract messages from mailbox files, extract header information from messages and to scan the ".newsrc" and "active" files. The newsreader then could be written and modified by the user himself.
tower@bu-cs.UUCP (05/06/87)
Keywords: gnu-emacs, lisp, news, mail, rn In article <1033@obelix.liu.se> l-aron@obelix.liu.se (Lars Aronsson) writes: > > Here's a description of a newsreader. Due to lack of time, > I will not be able to hack it myself. Perhaps it exists > already. Please, let me know! If not, I hope that my ideas > will inspire someone to do the job. > > Hints: > To write a news-reader entirely in shell scripts, would make it > too slow. To write it in C, like Larry Walls "rn", would work. > However, I'd rather go for the GNU-EMACS LISP. The only work > needed, is to write low-level routines to extract messages from > mailbox files, extract header information from messages and > to scan the ".newsrc" and "active" files. The newsreader then > could be written and modified by the user himself. Since at least v17, GNU Emacs has had a news reader. To invoke it: M-x rnews RET It only looks at groups already in one's .newsrc, though you can use the add group command to slowly set up a .newsrc (rn's newsetup program would be a much faster way). It could use considerable enhancement. Send working code to <bug-gnu-emacs.prep.ai.mit.edu>. If you want a list of work on rnews needing to be done, ask me. BTW, Richard Stallman, Chief GNUisance, has many more pressing tasks needing completion for the full GNU system. If you want to help finish GNU, instead of enhancing GNU Emacs further, contact him at: <rms@prep.ai.mit.edu>. enjoy -len -- Len Tower, Distributed Systems Group, Boston University, 111 Cummington Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA +1 (617) 353-2780 Home: 36 Porter Street, Somerville, MA 02143, USA +1 (617) 623-7739 UUCP: {}!harvard!bu-cs!tower INTERNET: tower@bu-cs.bu.edu