WAIS back-end? that understands mail?

WAIS back-end? that understands mail?

[Chris Shenton]

Since I can never remember which folder I put mail in, I use WAIS to
index my stored mail every night. I can search with the "M-x wais"
function that came with FreeWAIS-sf and it basically works but doesn't
understand it's really mail, rendering it as a flat file. 

I'd really like to be able to is see the results as a *Summary* buffer
and then step through each one, rendering as mail, since that's what
it is. Being able to reply, forward and the like would be a winner.

Extra points if I could walk through other WAIS archives in a similar
manner, like random saved text files, a WAISified Dictionary, etc.

Any pointers?

(I'm using gnus v5.8.2).

Re: WAIS back-end? that understands mail?

[Kai Großjohann]

There is nnir.el which can work with freeWAIS-sf.  Btw, all the other
people who try to use nnir.el seem to fail at installing freeWAIS-sf
-- there must be a problem somewhere.  If only I knew where the
problem is :-(

The comment near the beginning of nnir.el contains a *.fmt file which
you might wish to use with fwsf.

Sadly, currently nnir.el only works for one-file-per-msg backends, ie
nnml and nnmh.

ftp://ls6-ftp.cs.uni-dortmund.de/pub/src/emacs/

kai
-- 
A preposition is not a good thing to end a sentence with.

Re: WAIS back-end? that understands mail?

[BrYan P. Johnson]

>>>>> On 07 Dec 1999 23:51:16 +0100, Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) said:

    > There is nnir.el which can work with freeWAIS-sf.  Btw, all the
    > other people who try to use nnir.el seem to fail at installing
    > freeWAIS-sf -- there must be a problem somewhere.  If only I
    > knew where the problem is :-(

It wouldn't compile for me until I tried it without using nm. In the
incredibly extensive interactive configure program, it asks a great
deal of questions, and one is whether or not to use nm to extract
symbols. When I stopped answering yes there, it compiled.

BrYan
-- 
That's why they have the sled and dogs.

Re: WAIS back-end? that understands mail?

[Kai Großjohann]

"BrYan P. Johnson" <bilko@onebabyzebra.com> writes:

> [...] It wouldn't compile for me until I tried it without using
> nm.[...]

What was the default it offered?  Normally, the defaults should work,
and I usually just keep typing RET except where it asks for
directories.  But then, I've only tried Solaris...

kai
-- 
A preposition is not a good thing to end a sentence with.

Re: WAIS back-end? that understands mail?

[BrYan P. Johnson]

Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) writes:

> "BrYan P. Johnson" <bilko@onebabyzebra.com> writes:
> 
> > [...] It wouldn't compile for me until I tried it without using
> > nm.[...]
> 
> What was the default it offered?  Normally, the defaults should work,
> and I usually just keep typing RET except where it asks for
> directories.  But then, I've only tried Solaris...
> 

It defaulted to wanting to use nm. Perhaps the linux nm doesn't work
as Freewais expects.

BrYan

Re: WAIS back-end? that understands mail?

[Bud Rogers]

Chris Shenton <chris@shenton.org> writes:

> Since I can never remember which folder I put mail in, I use WAIS to
> index my stored mail every night. I can search with the "M-x wais"
> function that came with FreeWAIS-sf and it basically works but doesn't
> understand it's really mail, rendering it as a flat file. 
> 
> I'd really like to be able to is see the results as a *Summary* buffer
> and then step through each one, rendering as mail, since that's what
> it is. Being able to reply, forward and the like would be a winner.

Have a look at Kai Großjohann's nnir.el.  I use glimpse rather than wais,
but it does both.  From Kai's comments:


;; What does it do?  Well, it allows you to index your mail using some
;; search engine (freeWAIS-sf and Glimpse are currently supported),
;; then type `G G' in the Group buffer and issue a query to the search
;; engine.  You will then get a buffer which shows all articles
;; matching the query, sorted by Retrieval Status Value (score).

;; When looking at the retrieval result (in the Summary buffer) you
;; can type `G T' (aka M-x gnus-summary-nnir-goto-thread RET) on an
;; article.  You will be teleported into the group this article came
;; from, showing the thread this article is part of.  (See below for
;; restrictions.)


Good stuff, Maynard.  Recommended.

        
         ls6-ftp.cs.uni-dortmund.de:/pub/src/emacs


> 
> Extra points if I could walk through other WAIS archives in a similar
> manner, like random saved text files, a WAISified Dictionary, etc.

Dunno about that.  Kai?


-- 

Bud Rogers <budr@sirinet.net>

Re: WAIS back-end? that understands mail?

[Kai Großjohann]

Bud Rogers <budr@sirinet.net> writes:

> Chris Shenton <chris@shenton.org> writes:
> 
> > Extra points if I could walk through other WAIS archives in a similar
> > manner, like random saved text files, a WAISified Dictionary, etc.
> 
> Dunno about that.  Kai?

Hm.  Hm.  I think it just _might_ be possible, given that there is
nneething.  But what article numbers does nneething use?  The idea
might be this: you create an nneething backend with the files you
want, and then you tell nnir.el that the backend to use is that
nneething backend you just created.  I think that there will be some
ad-hockery required to deal with the article numbers, though.  Hm.

Any takers?

(I've got to remember to make nnir.el be able to deal with more than
one backend.)

kai
-- 
A preposition is not a good thing to end a sentence with.