From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/67200 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Abrahams Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Getting Reacquainted with Gnus Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:42:38 -0400 Message-ID: <87d4ku994x.fsf@mcbain.luannocracy.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1217465070 21994 80.91.229.12 (31 Jul 2008 00:44:30 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:44:30 +0000 (UTC) To: ding@gnus.org Original-X-From: ding-owner+M15657@lists.math.uh.edu Thu Jul 31 02:45:20 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: ding-account@gmane.org Original-Received: from util0.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.18]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1KOMI3-0005OD-TR for ding-account@gmane.org; Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:45:12 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.math.uh.edu) by util0.math.uh.edu with smtp (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1KOMFy-0008Pd-Lf; Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:43:02 -0500 Original-Received: from mx1.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.32]) by util0.math.uh.edu with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1KOMFx-0008PT-FD for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:43:01 -0500 Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.231.51]) by mx1.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1KOMFt-00024E-8F for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:43:01 -0500 Original-Received: from main.gmane.org ([80.91.229.2] helo=ciao.gmane.org) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1KOMGE-0004Y8-00 for ; Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:43:18 +0200 Original-Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43) id 1KOMFl-0003eb-Oj for ding@gnus.org; Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:42:49 +0000 Original-Received: from 207-172-223-249.c3-0.smr-ubr3.sbo-smr.ma.static.cable.rcn.com ([207.172.223.249]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:42:49 +0000 Original-Received: from dave by 207-172-223-249.c3-0.smr-ubr3.sbo-smr.ma.static.cable.rcn.com with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:42:49 +0000 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 61 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 207-172-223-249.c3-0.smr-ubr3.sbo-smr.ma.static.cable.rcn.com User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.0.60 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:HBsb1OjGWKr8J0krBbKb6kzbZkM= X-Spam-Score: -1.0 (-) List-ID: Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:67200 Archived-At: Hi, After much futzing around with other approaches, I decided to surrender to the inevitable truth that Gnus is the one true way (for me). So I've decided -- rather than building upon my already massive lack of understanding of How It Really Works -- to approach Gnus very slowly, at an oblique angle, with my old .gnus file handy in case The Beast turns out to be in a bad mood and I need to konk it over the head in a hurry. My first step was to go to http://gnus.org and look for documentation. After poking around a while, I discovered that the latest docs there were apparently posted sometime in 2003. That reminded me of why I've been wary of this project. Then I tried to figure out which release of Gnus I should be using. It turned out that http://gnus.org/dist/ had a whole bunch of cryptically-named gnus versions. Ngnus and ognus sounded vaguely like "No Gnus" and "Oort Gnus," names that I had heard often but never really understood. There was no indication of which package might be appropriate for me. I'm using a self-built snapshot of GNU Emacs that reports itself as version 23.0.60.2 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.12.9) of 2008-05-03 The gnus that came with my emacs reports itself to be v5.13, so eventually I tried looking in its `M-x info' and found section 10.2.1: ... On the 26th of October 2000, Oort Gnus was begun and was released as Gnus 5.10 on May 1st 2003 (24 releases). On the January 4th 2004, No Gnus was begun. If you happen upon a version of Gnus that has a prefixed name - "(ding) Gnus", "September Gnus", "Red Gnus", "Quassia Gnus", "Pterodactyl Gnus", "Oort Gnus", "No Gnus" - don't panic. Don't let it know that you're frightened. Back away. Slowly. Whatever you do, don't run. Walk away, calmly, until you're out of its reach. Find a proper released version of Gnus and snuggle up to that instead. This is cute, but confusing. And note, the latter paragraph doesn't appear in the old 2003 docs on gnus.org. Somehow I persevered, but it wasn't until section 10.2.7 of the *info* that it began to become clear what these versions meant. I still don't know what version I should be using. I guess the only thing newer than 5.13 would be a development snapshot? My point in writing this post is that the environment for someone trying to get started with the latest, best Gnus is not too friendly. I would like to see updated documentation available on gnus.org, and I'd especially like to see clear guidance there about what to download when acquiring gnus. Even sinking the ognus and ngnus packages into a subdirectory called "alpha" would be a big help. -- Dave Abrahams BoostPro Computing http://www.boostpro.com