From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/59944 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Miles Bader Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Newsreader citation interface Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2005 09:17:02 +0900 Message-ID: <87zmxj7xq9.fsf_-_@tc-1-100.kawasaki.gol.ne.jp> References: <4227C176.7050601@mungo.com> <4228811A.6030703@mungo.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1109981706 19346 80.91.229.2 (5 Mar 2005 00:15:06 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2005 00:15:06 +0000 (UTC) Cc: ding@gnus.org Original-X-From: ding-owner+M8485@lists.math.uh.edu Sat Mar 05 01:15:06 2005 Original-Received: from malifon.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.13] ident=mail) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1D7MwZ-0002lO-TE for ding-account@gmane.org; Sat, 05 Mar 2005 01:14:56 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.math.uh.edu ident=lists) by malifon.math.uh.edu with smtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 1D7Myu-0001R9-00; Fri, 04 Mar 2005 18:17:20 -0600 Original-Received: from util2.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.23]) by malifon.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 1D7Mym-0001R3-00 for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Fri, 04 Mar 2005 18:17:12 -0600 Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by util2.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1D7Myj-00057t-Mr for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Fri, 04 Mar 2005 18:17:09 -0600 Original-Received: from smtp02.dentaku.gol.com ([203.216.5.72]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1D7Myi-0007gg-00 for ; Sat, 05 Mar 2005 01:17:08 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]) by smtp02.dentaku.gol.com with esmtp (Dentaku) id 1D7Myg-00065E-Of; Sat, 05 Mar 2005 09:17:06 +0900 Original-Received: from yokohama2-61-203-152-248.ap.0038.net ([61.203.152.248] helo=tc-1-100.kawasaki.gol.ne.jp) by smtp02.dentaku.gol.com with esmtpa (Dentaku) id 1D7Myf-00065A-Sp; Sat, 05 Mar 2005 09:17:06 +0900 Original-Received: by tc-1-100.kawasaki.gol.ne.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 89D792F60; Sat, 5 Mar 2005 09:17:04 +0900 (JST) Original-Newsgroups: rec.arts.books System-Type: i686-pc-linux-gnu Original-Lines: 51 Cancel-Lock: sha1:bj19ToyHknkgwYzzw9o1oqPcaAE= In-Reply-To: (Russell B.'s message of "Fri, 04 Mar 2005 12:42:21 -0800") Posted-To: rec.arts.books X-Virus-Scanned: by AMaViS GOL X-Abuse-Complaints: abuse@gol.com X-Spam-Score: -4.8 (----) Precedence: bulk Original-Sender: ding-owner@lists.math.uh.edu X-MailScanner-From: ding-owner+m8485@lists.math.uh.edu X-MailScanner-To: ding-account@gmane.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:59944 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general:59944 Russell B writes: > There is nothing repressive about those rules; they only exist to > protect all users from a collective action problem, namely that of > individual users who are tempted to do things--like leaving whitespace > before the quote marker, or posting responses above the quoted text > ("top-posting")--that would disrupt the flow of the discussion and > cause unexpected behavior in standard newsreaders. I'd think that about 80% of the problem is automatic insertion of entire quoted posts by the newsreader software during a followup, and many users being too lazy/clueless to delete it. Right? I've often wondered if there's a better user interface for citing the replied-to post, which would make "proper" citation so easy that everybody would do it without thinking. For instance, consider the following: * You always start out with an empty body, no quoted text is ever inserted. * You have some key bound to `insert-next-cited-line', which keeps track of the last cited line you inserted. The first time you use this key, it inserts the ".... wrote:" line, and the first quoted text line, and each subsequent press inserts one more line, and increments the `next-to-be-inserted' line number. You can repeat this key to quickly insert regions of quoted text. * You have another key bound to `uninsert-last-cited-line' which just undoes the effect of "insert-next-cited-line": it deletes the last inserted line, and decrements the `next-to-be-inserted' line number, so that you can reinsert that line later (presumably after you've typed some text in between). * There's a final key bound to `shift-last-cited-line', which deletes the last inserted line of quoted text, and then does `insert-next-cited-line'. This key is for when you want to skip parts of the message that shouldn't be inserted. I'm not sure how this sort of interface would be in practice, but it sounds very convenient to "scan out" regions of quoted text and be able to insert your answers in between. [Unfortunately I suppose any interface using actual key bindings is unacceptable to a large portion of the populace... sigh.] -Miles -- Run away! Run away!