belkin@teecs.UUCP (Hershel Belkin) (08/23/89)
I would very much like to get in touch with some notes gurus out there
...surely there ARE some!?
In fact, I'd even be willing (perhaps) to make some updates to notes
to solve some of its more annoying problems, which are (in my own
opinion):
- Lack of ability to specify distribution for a new note
- Lack of ability to cross-post (OK, I know it's a pain to
store all those cross-posted articles also, but for now
I'd be satisfied to be able to cross-post!)
- Lack of a text-search capability (as opposed to author or
title search)
Can anyone help me in this quest???
(Since I cannot easily cross-post this, I may submit it separately
to a few select newsgroups. Sorry for that!! :-? )
--
+-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------+
| Hershel Belkin hp9000/825 (HP-UX)| ...!lsuc!teecs!belkin |
| Test Equipment Engineering Computing Services | Phone: 416 246-2647 |
| Litton Systems Canada Limited (Toronto) | FAX: 416 246-5233 |
+-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------+gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu (09/02/89)
I am considering making some improvements to the notesfile software.
Since Ray Essick has left the U of Illinois, and I'm not yet a guru,
only simple changes are planned.
However, most of the changes you want are not planned. In particular,
the ability to cross-post is NOT planned. In a system where
cross-posting is automated, users tend to abuse the privilege, wasting
net bandwidth, and more importantly, intellectual bandwidth as people
see the same drivel over and over and over and over...... Ever see a
machine bring Ethernet to its knees by broadcasting? Notesfiles are
intended to emulate the extremely successful PLATO notesfile
philosophy, where cross-posting has never been needed.
Some things that are tentatively planned are:
A reverse sequencer command (like esc-l -> backup one note)
Display number of unread (new) articles in a sequencer notesfile (perhaps)
Custom notes-save headers (/*...*/ is too long -- a pain)
Custom notes-save indent info. (nothing currently)
Perhaps original name of notesfile writer in saved response.
(In Article gillies@cs.uiuc.edu (Don Gillies) writes:
Ability to search a note for pattern matches (page through digests)
Keep notes from losing track of place (saving digest notes from middle)
? ability to support shift-1 through shift-9 to page through responses
or a goto-response ability (maybe impossible due to non-standard keyboards)
search entire notesfile for text in a note
What's the difference between "specifying distribution for a new note"
and cross-posting?belkin@teecs.UUCP (Hershel Belkin) (09/05/89)
/ teecs:news.software.notes / gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu / 4:02 pm Sep 1, 1989 / >What's the difference between "specifying distribution for a new note" >and cross-posting? Seems to me there's a vast difference: If I write a note to "can.general" for example (which is intended to be distributed only within Canada), my system will send it out without a "Distribution" header line, which I believe will imply "world" distribution! (I'm somewhat new to the net, so if I'm wrong, please enlighten me!) Right now, if I "respond" to an existing note, it copies the "Distribution" header line of the basenote, so everything is OK, but not so for a new basenote in the same notesfile! Another point of concern (at leat for me :-) is that there does not seem to be a method for excluding notes from specified "newsgroups". Since notes automatically creates a notesfile for any new group, an article posted to "comp.misc" and cross-posted (not using notes :-) to "boston.general" will cause the creation of "boston.general". OK for the first time it happens...I can spot it in nfmaint, kill the notesfile. But now I'd like to ass "boston.general" as a group I never want to see again!! Any way? Any plans? I agree with the point about cross-posting, with one exception: I was not talking about "automatic" cross-posting. But I think that notes would be improved if it allowed the user to specify/edit the "Newsgroups" line. These are my two reasons: 1. A note comes in cross-posted to 6 groups; you wish to respond but you feel that 4 or 5 of the groups were inappropriate -- why continue that traffic load? If you could (easily) edit the "Newsgroups" line, you could respond only to those groups you feel are appropriate. 2. There are some times when the same information genuinely is of interest to more than one newsgroup -- take for example a question concerning interfacing a brand X unix box with a brand Y Xenix box: it seems appropriate to post to "comp.sys.brandX, comp.sys.brandY, comp.sys.xenix ... I would greatly enjoy discussing some of these issues further. I hope that the discussion will pry loose some notes users, and help me to decide whether I should stay with notes (which I like), or look for something else to access usenet.
garym@telesoft.telesoft.com (Gary Morris @nova) (09/06/89)
In article <410005@teecs.UUCP>, belkin@teecs.UUCP (Hershel Belkin) writes: > Since notes automatically creates a notesfile for any new group, an article > posted to "comp.misc" and cross-posted (not using notes :-) to > "boston.general" will cause the creation of "boston.general". OK for the > first time it happens...I can spot it in nfmaint, kill the notesfile. > But now I'd like to ass "boston.general" as a group I never want to > see again!! Any way? Any plans? When this happens add an renaming for "boston.general" in your "newsgroups" file so that articles for "boston.general" go into "junk" instead. I have a line for every thing that ever shows up like this so I only have to deal with it once. Then I clean out the "junk" on a 1 day expiration. --GaryM -- Gary Morris uunet!ucsd!telesoft!garym TeleSoft, San Diego telesoft!garym@ucsd.ucsd.edu (619) 457-2700 garym@crash.cts.com
belkin@teecs.UUCP (Hershel Belkin) (09/07/89)
/ teecs:news.software.notes / garym@telesoft.telesoft.com (Gary Morris @nova) / 1:09 am Sep 6, 1989 / In article <410005@teecs.UUCP>, belkin@teecs.UUCP (Hershel Belkin) writes: >> Since notes automatically creates a notesfile for any new group, an article >> posted to "comp.misc" and cross-posted (not using notes :-) to >> "boston.general" will cause the creation of "boston.general". OK for the >> first time it happens...I can spot it in nfmaint, kill the notesfile. >> But now I'd like to ass "boston.general" as a group I never want to ^^^ I have no idea where this came from, since the original word was "define"!! (I'll blame a noisy line when I wrote the note! :-) >When this happens add an renaming for "boston.general" in your "newsgroups" >file ... *What* "newsgroups" file??? I can't find any reference to notes using a file called "newsgroups". (Only the "Active" file is mentioned...) This sounds like the solution I've been looking for, but I need a bit more information on how to use it! I may be missing something obvious here -- please enlighten me if I am! On an unrelated matter (sort of :-), I am curious as to how you produced the response header above ("In article..." etc. and the ">" bracketing) -- I am assuming that you responded using "notes", of course. For reference, I am running Notes 2.7 (86/07/03). -- +-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------+ | Hershel Belkin hp9000/825 (HP-UX)| ...!lsuc!teecs!belkin | | Test Equipment Engineering Computing Services | Phone: 416 246-2647 | | Litton Systems Canada Limited (Toronto) | FAX: 416 246-5233 | +-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------+
garym@telesoft.telesoft.com (Gary Morris @nova) (09/08/89)
In article <410007@teecs.UUCP>, belkin@teecs.UUCP (Hershel Belkin) writes: > / teecs:news.software.notes / garym@telesoft.telesoft.com (Gary Morris @nova) / 1:09 am Sep 6, 1989 / > > *What* "newsgroups" file??? I can't find any reference to notes using > a file called "newsgroups". (Only the "Active" file is mentioned...) Perhaps you have a different notesfile system. We are using the notes system from Univ of Illinois written by Essick and Kolstad. The newsgroups file is /usr/spool/notes/.utilities/newsgroups (on a standard installation) and is documented in the "Notesfile Reference Manual" (rev 20Oct85) in section B.3.3. > On an unrelated matter (sort of :-), I am curious as to how you produced > the response header above ("In article..." etc. and the ">" bracketing) -- > I am assuming that you responded using "notes", of course. Natural assumption but incorrect in this case. For USENET news we have a use regular news software and I use "rn" (as I am with this article). Notesfiles are for local (internal) use only. --GaryM -- Gary Morris uunet!ucsd!telesoft!garym TeleSoft, San Diego telesoft!garym@ucsd.ucsd.edu (619) 457-2700 garym@crash.cts.com
jewett@hpl-opus.HP.COM (Bob Jewett) (09/09/89)
> Another point of concern (at leat for me :-) is that there does not seem > to be a method for excluding notes from specified "newsgroups". Since > notes automatically creates a notesfile for any new group, an article > posted to "comp.misc" and cross-posted (not using notes :-) to > "boston.general" will cause the creation of "boston.general". OK for the > first time it happens...I can spot it in nfmaint, kill the notesfile. > But now I'd like to [define] "boston.general" as a group I never want to > see again!! Any way? Any plans? Put it in ~notes/invalid as "boston.*". You can keep such groups from getting created by making /usr/spool/notes unwriteable by notes/news. This keeps top-level groups (such as boston.*) from getting created at all, but does generate error messages each time one arrives. I have a filter on the output of the hourly daemon that notices such complaints and adds a line like "boston.*" to ~notes/invalid automatically. Bob
belkin@teecs.UUCP (Hershel Belkin) (09/12/89)
>Perhaps you have a different notesfile system. We are using the notes system >from Univ of Illinois written by Essick and Kolstad. The newsgroups file is >/usr/spool/notes/.utilities/newsgroups (on a standard installation) and is >documented in the "Notesfile Reference Manual" (rev 20Oct85) in section B.3.3. ---------- OK, I guess I see the problem: My copy of the "Notesfile reference manual" is dates 1983, and doesn't have numbered sections! I guess my version of notes is quite old (written by same authors, though). There is no mention of a "newsgroups" file, and creating one has no effect, so it seems my version of notes doesn't handle it. :-( I am running Notes 2.7 86/07/03, as supplied (not supported) by H.P. (I understand that there is a 2.8 version within H.P. as well...) I guess this leads to an obvious next question: is a more recent version of notes available somewhere? (And part 2, has it been successfully run on a HP9000/800-series machine?) -- +-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------+ | Hershel Belkin hp9000/825 (HP-UX)| ...!lsuc!teecs!belkin | | Test Equipment Engineering Computing Services | Phone: 416 246-2647 | | Litton Systems Canada Limited (Toronto) | FAX: 416 246-5233 | +-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------+