[news.sysadmin] News today

tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) (01/20/91)

In article <*&7Gwwk2@cs.psu.edu> flee@cs.psu.edu (Felix Lee) writes:
>How do I find "misc.headlines" if I don't know what its name is?  I'd
>probably look for "events" or "current" or "news"; none of which will
>help.

From within rn:

	!fgrep -i current /usr/lib/news/newsgroups

That's been supported for a long time, too. :-)

-- 
Psychoanalysis is the mental illness   \\\    Tom Neff
it purports to cure. -- Karl Kraus      \\\   tneff@bfmn0.BFM.COM

flee@cs.psu.edu (Felix Lee) (01/20/91)

>Why, *GASP*, we could even call it    MISC.HEADLINES    Just think of

We have over 1k newsgroups localized.  Is it any wonder people can't
find things any more?  The "newsgroups" file would help, but it's
rarely kept up-to-date, and no newsreading program uses it
effectively.  This is a user interface issue.

A keywording scheme would be nice; lacking that, newsgroup names are
the best keyword system we have, but there aren't enough of them.  We
need maybe a couple hundred more newsgroups to fill in the gaps and a
couple hundred aliases to fix irregularities in the name scheme.

One thing I've seen a lot lately is misnamed groups on the Newsgroups:
line.  Quick now, is it	comp.sys.ibm.pc.msdos, comp.os.pc.msdos,
comp.os.ms.dos, comp.sys.pc.msdos, or something else?  This is another
user interface issue.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could tell your newsreader/newsposter
"Newsgroups: aquaria,amiga.tech", and it will nail it down properly?
Here's two simple rules: leading and trailing words can be omitted;
words can be abbreviated.  So you might say "r.h.funny" or just simply
"funny".  "humor" is either ambiguous or generates a list.

It's 1991.  "rn" is nearly 8 years old.  Since then, we've gained
Subject menus (>5 years old) and threads (>3 years).

It's time for The News Interface of the 1990s.  What, you're not done
yet?  Hurry up!
--
Felix Lee	flee@cs.psu.edu

eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) (01/20/91)

In article <a_2Gvz=1@cs.psu.edu> flee@cs.psu.edu (Felix Lee) writes:
>It's 1991.  "rn" is nearly 8 years old.  Since then, we've gained
>Subject menus (>5 years old) and threads (>3 years).

Every version of rn I've used (4.3 PL>=40) has an "o" command.
RTFM.
					-=EPS=-

flee@cs.psu.edu (Felix Lee) (01/21/91)

>Every version of rn I've used (4.3 PL>=40) has an "o" command.

Yes.  "o" was one of the early features of "rn".  And "rn" also has
group name regexp searching.  But that's not quite enough.

How do I find "misc.headlines" if I don't know what its name is?  I'd
probably look for "events" or "current" or "news"; none of which will
help.

How do I find an appropriate group to talk about Buckminster Fuller?
I have to look through 1100+ newsgroup names, and that probably still
won't help.  "rn" doesn't provide ready access to the group
descriptions file either.

How will you cope with over 10 000 newsgroups a few years from now?
How do you cope with 1100 newsgroups now?
--
Felix Lee	flee@cs.psu.edu