[news.software.nn] Another wish for Kim

sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) (02/24/90)

One thing I always wished rn had was a better way to reorder newsgroups.
What I'd like to see is:

(while in a newsgroup)
I type ":place". It then gives me a fullscreen of newsgroups in order of
presentation. I move to the newsgroup where I wish to move this one, hit
"p" or "P" (like vi "put before" or "put after") and voila it is now there
in the presentation sequence.

Obvious wins would be the ability to quickly deal with new groups, and
reorder groups as they change in importance to the reader.

What do you think? About a million hours of work to implement? :-)

Sean
-- 
***  Sean Casey          sean@ms.uky.edu, sean@ukma.bitnet, ukma!sean
***  "May I take this opportunity of emphasizing that there is no cannibalism
***  in the British Navy. Absolutely none, and when I say none, I mean there
***  is a certain amount, more than we are prepared to admit." -MP

storm@texas.dk (Kim F. Storm) (02/26/90)

sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) writes:

>One thing I always wished rn had was a better way to reorder newsgroups.

>I type ":place". It then gives me a fullscreen of newsgroups in order of
>presentation. I move to the newsgroup where I wish to move this one, hit
>"p" or "P" (like vi "put before" or "put after") and voila it is now there
>in the presentation sequence.

Nice feature, and one which I have thought about several time myself.
However, I think the logistics to achieve this is rather difficult!
Suppose you have

	comp.sources
	alt*
	comp*

in your init file, and you run :place to move comp.sources after
alt.sources.  To achieve this, the sequence has to be rewritten to
something like (NOT POSSIBLE NOW!):

	alt* 
	(( alt.sources : comp.sources ))
	comp*

To have nn modify your sequence to accomodate this change would be
VERY difficult.

However, in 6.4, you can specify the following:

	sequence
	RC

which will mean that it uses the sequence in which the groups are
listed in .newsrc as the presentation sequence (the rn style).

You can even use just the initial part of .newsrc in the sequence
(anywhere you want), e.g.

	sequence
	comp.sources*
	RC:5		# use the first 5 lines of .newsrc
	comp*
	RC:news.admin	# use .newsrc until (and including) the first 
			# line starting with "news.admin"
	alt*
	RC		# use rest of .newsrc

(since the RC:5 has already inserted the first five groups in .newsrc
in the sequence, the RC:news.admin will actually start at line 6).

This should give you a more flexible way to build the presentation
sequence (but maybe less intuitive and harder to maintain).

The advantage is that using the .newsrc sequence makes the start-up of
nn faster since it has already read .newsrc, and knows the ordering of
the groups in this file.

I still fail to see how the :place command should be able to do
things correctly.  But I am open to suggestions!

-- 
Kim F. Storm        storm@texas.dk        Tel +45 429 174 00
Texas Instruments, Marielundvej 46E, DK-2730 Herlev, Denmark
	  No news is good news, but nn is better!

rock%warp@Sun.COM (Bill Petro - SunOS Marketing) (02/27/90)

sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) writes:

>One thing I always wished rn had was a better way to reorder newsgroups.
>What I'd like to see is:

>(while in a newsgroup)
>I type ":place". It then gives me a fullscreen of newsgroups in order of
>presentation. I move to the newsgroup where I wish to move this one, hit
>"p" or "P" (like vi "put before" or "put after") and voila it is now there
>in the presentation sequence.

>Obvious wins would be the ability to quickly deal with new groups, and
>reorder groups as they change in importance to the reader.

>What do you think? About a million hours of work to implement? :-)

Here is a trick that I have used.  If I find a group that I would like
placed somewhere else in the sequence, I use this macro:


	define 1
		prompt "Append group name to group sequence?"
		?no return
		:!echo $G >> ~/.nn/init
		prompt "Edit init file?"
		?no return
		:!vi ~/.nn/init
		redraw
	end
	#bind to ctrl-t in both modes:
	map both  macro 1

Then, by just typing ^T, it will ask if I want to append this group, I
reply "y", and then it will ask me if I want to edit the init file.  I
type "y" again, and move the newsgroup name accordingly.

What I haven't figured out is how to get it to take a "space" rather
than a "y".


     Bill Petro  {decwrl,hplabs,ucbvax}!sun!Eng!rock
"UNIX for the sake of the kingdom of heaven"  Matthew 19:12

storm@texas.dk (Kim F. Storm) (02/27/90)

rock%warp@Sun.COM (Bill Petro - SunOS Marketing) writes:

>Here is a trick that I have used.  If I find a group that I would like
>placed somewhere else in the sequence, I use this macro:

And in 6.4, you can even avoid defining the macro explicitly:

	map both ^T (
		prompt "Append group name to group sequence?"
		?no return
		:!echo $G >> ~/.nn/init
		prompt "Edit init file?"
		?no return
		:!vi ~/.nn/init
		redraw
	)

>What I haven't figured out is how to get it to take a "space" rather
>than a "y".

It is a bug - it will be fixed in 6.4.  Thank you.

-- 
Kim F. Storm        storm@texas.dk        Tel +45 429 174 00
Texas Instruments, Marielundvej 46E, DK-2730 Herlev, Denmark
	  No news is good news, but nn is better!