karl@triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) (03/18/89)
Bill Wisner asked for noises on GNUS. Here's a very short description.
As the name implies, it runs inside GNU Emacs. As it starts up, it
cogitates on your .newsrc (yes, it still uses .newsrc, but also
creates .newsrc.el, containing lisp alists) in comparison against the
active file. It finally gives a *Newsgroup* buffer which looks like
this:
4: comp.mail.misc
2: comp.sources.wanted
12: news.groups
* 1: news.software.b
indicating the number of unread articles in each newsgroup. A `*'
beside the newsgroup means that there is nothing but marked-unread
articles in that newsgroup.
Hitting SPC or = selects the newsgroup, in which it finds all the
headers of the unread articles. It creates a *Subject* buffer thusly:
1396: [ 17:nate@hobbes.i] Re: suggested change for newsreaders
One line per article. The article number in the directory is
leftmost; in the brackets is the size in lines and the (abbreviated)
From: address, and the Subject: is the rest. An assortment of flags
(mostly, D and K and sometimes -) get appended in the first column as
you read, kill, and mark things unread. The currently-displayed
article gets a `+' placed between the article # and the [.
When you read articles, it uses the bottom 3/4 or 4/5 of the screen
for the article proper, in an *Article* buffer. You can get minimal
headers or verbose headers. Depending on the settings you give to a
variety of configuration variables, it can do subject-search order or
straight line order, and may or may not automatically select the first
article on entry to a newsgroup. You can also have the *Subject*
buffer sorted by article # (default), author, posted date, or subject.
Articles can be marked special with `u.' This puts a `-' in the flag
position, and also causes the *Newsgroups* line to have a `*' if only
u-marked articles exist. M-u removes all marks from a marked article,
making it susceptible to all other article-specific commands (n and p
and related stuff normally pass over marked articles).
Followup and reply work as one might expect, especially if you are a
user of GNU Emacs' RMAIL mode. Most of the *post-news*-peculiar
commands are bound with C-c as prefix key, as per *mail*. Replies are
set up in an ordinary *mail* buffer.
KILL files are supported. They are actually loaded lisp files; they
look like this:
(gnus-kill "Subject" "cancel")
(gnus-Subject-delete-marked "X")
This is my KILL file for the control newsgroup. gnus-kill marks
matching articles with X. The second line removes them from the
*Subject* line.
It works via NNTP or via a local spool area. It's also possible for
it to deal with mail in an MH-like way if you want. When doing NNTP
things, it is apparently possible for it to keep track of >1 NNTP
server hosts. (Why one would want to do such a thing is pretty much
beyond me...) We use spool areas here, NFS-mounted from a server, so
I've never tried this out.
I find GNUS very useful; my preferred newsreading interface, mostly
because I have a uniform interface for news and mail. GNUS 3.11 was
distributed in comp.emacs a month or so ago. If you didn't save it
when it came across, it can be ftp'd from tut.cis.ohio-state.edu or
uucp'd from osu-cis.
--Karl
PS- Yes, GNUS creates peculiar Message-IDs. I don't justify it, I
just put up with it. It matters very little.
PPS- My GNUS-specific lines from my .emacs:
(global-set-key "\C-XR" 'gnus) ;as per rmail, on C-x r.
(setq gnus-novice-user nil)
(setq gnus-default-distribution "world")
(setq gnus-auto-select-next 'quietly)
(setq gnus-auto-select-same t)
(setq gnus-use-long-file-name nil)
(setq gnus-large-newsgroup 100)
(setq gnus-author-copy-file "~/Mail/.news")
(autoload 'gnus "gnus" "Read news using GNUS." t)