a couple of newbie questions with gnus

a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Martin Jørgensen]

Hi,

1) Earlier today I could browse usenet-messages simply by clicking 
"enter" on top of the message in the "*Summary (group-name)*" window. 
But there was one news-group in which I must have screwed something up.

It didn't show me the messages anymore, but it instead it showed an "G." 
to the left, instead of the usual "R." (for read I suppose). This is in 
the group where it works:

R. [  11: Hadron Quark           ] Gnus+bbdb
  .     [  10: Henry Atting           ]
  .         [  11: Hadron Quark           ]
  .             [  26: Henry Atting           ]
  .                 [  25: Hadron Quark           ]

What does it mean if the "R." becomes a "G." ?


2) Another newbie question: What does that star mean in front of the 
group-name in the "*Group*"-buffer? Like here:

  6119: comp.lang.c
    46:*gnu.emacs.gnus

This group has a star, but comp.lang.c doesn't...?


3) How to mark all messages as read? In future sessions, I would also 
like only to see threads with new messages... That's how my thunderbird 
is set up now...


p.s. Well, I still need to learn to post with gnus so I've send this 
message from thunderbird - I'm also not too familiar with emacs, so I 
probably have a long way ahead of me...


Best regards / Med venlig hilsen
Martin Jørgensen

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Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[David Z Maze]

The easy ones to me...

Martin Jørgensen <unoder.spam@spam.jay.net> writes:

> 3) How to mark all messages as read? In future sessions, I would also
> like only to see threads with new messages... That's how my
> thunderbird is set up now...

'c' from either the summary buffer or the appropriate line in the
group buffer.  By default, Gnus will only show new messages.  (FAQ:
how do I get to to show old messages?  C-u RET from the group buffer
will do it.)

> p.s. Well, I still need to learn to post with gnus

'a' from the summary buffer.  Edit the message buffer appropriately,
then 'C-c C-c' to actually post.  'F' will follow-up to the current
post with history.

  --dzm

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Johan Bockgård]

Martin Jørgensen <unoder.spam@spam.jay.net> writes:

> It didn't show me the messages anymore, but it instead it showed an
> "G." to the left, instead of the usual "R." (for read I suppose).

The message has been removed from the server.

> 2) Another newbie question: What does that star mean in front of the
> group-name in the "*Group*"-buffer? Like here:
>
>  6119: comp.lang.c
>    46:*gnu.emacs.gnus

,----
| gnus-group-line-format is a variable defined in `gnus-group.el'.
| Its value is 
| "%M%S%p%P%5y:%B%(%g%)%O\n"
| 
| Documentation:
| *Format of group lines.
| It works along the same lines as a normal formatting string,
| with some simple extensions.
| 
| [...]
| 
| %B    Whether a summary buffer for the group is open (char, "*")
`----

-- 
Johan Bockgård

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Alexander Ponomarenko]

>>>>> "Martin" == Martin Jørgensen <unoder.spam@spam.jay.net> writes:

  Martin> It didn't show me the messages anymore, but it instead it
  Martin> showed an "G." to the left, instead of the usual "R." (for
  Martin> read I suppose). This is in the group where it works:

  Martin> R. [ 11: Hadron Quark ] Gnus+bbdb .  [ 10: Henry Atting ] .
  Martin> [ 11: Hadron Quark ] .  [ 26: Henry Atting ] .  [ 25: Hadron
  Martin> Quark ]

  Martin> What does it mean if the "R." becomes a "G." ?

  "G" marks messages that are killed from server (you can't reach them
  anymore).

  Martin> 2) Another newbie question: What does that star mean in
  Martin> front of the group-name in the "*Group*"-buffer? Like here:

  Martin>  6119: comp.lang.c 46:*gnu.emacs.gnus

  Martin> This group has a star, but comp.lang.c doesn't...?

  I saw the star only when I subscribe to some group and first it's
  showing was with the start. I think newly subscribed group marks that
  way.

  Martin> 3) How to mark all messages as read? In future sessions, I
  Martin> would also like only to see threads with new
  Martin> messages... That's how my thunderbird is set up now...

  I use adaptive scoring and catchup at the end of reading. Catch up can
  be more flexible and done to region or from/to the point.
  You can read help about adaptive scoring. It is very usefull.

-- 
Alexander Ponomarenko

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Martin Jørgensen]

David Z Maze wrote:
>>p.s. Well, I still need to learn to post with gnus
> 
> 
> 'a' from the summary buffer.  Edit the message buffer appropriately,
> then 'C-c C-c' to actually post.  'F' will follow-up to the current
> post with history.

Ok, thanks, but I'll still have to figure out how to enter my identity 
information and signature... Only thing I did so far was to add:

(setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "192.168.1.100"))


Best regards / Med venlig hilsen
Martin Jørgensen

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Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Martin Jørgensen]

Johan Bockgård wrote:
> Martin Jørgensen <unoder.spam@spam.jay.net> writes:
> 
> 
>>It didn't show me the messages anymore, but it instead it showed an
>>"G." to the left, instead of the usual "R." (for read I suppose).
> 
> 
> The message has been removed from the server.

I find that difficult to believe that, as I'm running leafnode which 
should get whatever messages it can from my news-server and then I don't 
think it should ever remove messages before after about 10/20/30 days or 
something... That's why I have:

(setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "192.168.1.100"))

I never tried that any messages was removed from my leafnode server: 
192.168.1.100. How can that be?

>>2) Another newbie question: What does that star mean in front of the
>>group-name in the "*Group*"-buffer? Like here:
>>
>> 6119: comp.lang.c
>>   46:*gnu.emacs.gnus
> 
> 
> ,----
> | gnus-group-line-format is a variable defined in `gnus-group.el'.
> | Its value is 
> | "%M%S%p%P%5y:%B%(%g%)%O\n"
> | 
> | Documentation:
> | *Format of group lines.
> | It works along the same lines as a normal formatting string,
> | with some simple extensions.
> | 
> | [...]
> | 
> | %B    Whether a summary buffer for the group is open (char, "*")
> `----

I don't understand any of that. What did that star '*' between the "46" 
and "gnu.emacs.gnus" mean again?


Best regards / Med venlig hilsen
Martin Jørgensen

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Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Alexander Ponomarenko]

>>>>> "Martin" == Martin Jørgensen <unoder.spam@spam.jay.net> writes:

  Martin> David Z Maze wrote:
  >>> p.s. Well, I still need to learn to post with gnus
  >> 'a' from the summary buffer.  Edit the message buffer
  >> appropriately, then 'C-c C-c' to actually post.  'F' will
  >> follow-up to the current post with history.

  Martin> Ok, thanks, but I'll still have to figure out how to enter
  Martin> my identity information and signature... Only thing I did so
  Martin> far was to add:

  Martin> (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "192.168.1.100"))

  You can use variable gnus-posting-styles to have different fields on
  different groups. Example:

(setq gnus-posting-styles
      '(("fido.*"
	 (address "email@email.com")
	 (signature "Best regards,\nIt's me"))
	(".*"
	 (address "email2@email.com")
	 (signature "Another signature"))))

-- 
Best regards,
Alexander Ponomarenko

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Martin Jørgensen]

Alexander Ponomarenko wrote:
>>>>>>"Martin" == Martin Jørgensen <unoder.spam@spam.jay.net> writes:
> 
> 
>   Martin> David Z Maze wrote:
>   >>> p.s. Well, I still need to learn to post with gnus
>   >> 'a' from the summary buffer.  Edit the message buffer
>   >> appropriately, then 'C-c C-c' to actually post.  'F' will
>   >> follow-up to the current post with history.
> 
>   Martin> Ok, thanks, but I'll still have to figure out how to enter
>   Martin> my identity information and signature... Only thing I did so
>   Martin> far was to add:
> 
>   Martin> (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "192.168.1.100"))
> 
>   You can use variable gnus-posting-styles to have different fields on
>   different groups. Example:
> 
> (setq gnus-posting-styles
>       '(("fido.*"
> 	 (address "email@email.com")
> 	 (signature "Best regards,\nIt's me"))
> 	(".*"
> 	 (address "email2@email.com")
> 	 (signature "Another signature"))))

Hi, thanks...

If I only want a single identity I suppose I just insert this:

 > (setq gnus-posting-styles
 >       '(("*.*"
 > 	 (address "email@email.com")
 > 	 (signature "Best regards,\nIt's me"))))


Ok, but where do I set up my name (in the "from"-field)? I must have 
overlooked something, because I've searched through a lot of information 
with no luck...


Best regards / Med venlig hilsen
Martin Jørgensen

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Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Malte Spiess]

Martin Jørgensen <unoder.spam@spam.jay.net> writes:

> Alexander Ponomarenko wrote:
>
> Hi, thanks...
>
> If I only want a single identity I suppose I just insert this:
>
>> (setq gnus-posting-styles
>>       '(("*.*"
>> 	 (address "email@email.com")
>> 	 (signature "Best regards,\nIt's me"))))

No, if you've got only one identity, you should not need this.
Ever tried the customize things (M-x customize-group ...)?
btw.: what is "*.*" supposed to be? This is not a shell, in lisp ".*"
means match everything.
Try setting user-mail-address and user-full-name. I'm not sure about the
signature though. Maybe you do need the gnus-posting-styles for that.

> Best regards / Med venlig hilsen
> Martin Jørgensen

Best regards / Freundlich grüßt

Malte Spiess

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Martin Jørgensen]

Malte Spiess wrote:
> Martin Jørgensen <unoder.spam@spam.jay.net> writes:
> 
> 
>>Alexander Ponomarenko wrote:
>>
>>Hi, thanks...
>>
>>If I only want a single identity I suppose I just insert this:
>>
>>
>>>(setq gnus-posting-styles
>>>      '(("*.*"
>>>	 (address "email@email.com")
>>>	 (signature "Best regards,\nIt's me"))))
> 
> 
> No, if you've got only one identity, you should not need this.
> Ever tried the customize things (M-x customize-group ...)?

I didn't try it before now... But there are so many options...

> btw.: what is "*.*" supposed to be? This is not a shell, in lisp ".*"
> means match everything.
> Try setting user-mail-address and user-full-name. I'm not sure about the
> signature though. Maybe you do need the gnus-posting-styles for that.

Ok, thanks.

Final problem I think: Gnus stopped working now... I get something like 
this in the messages buffer:

. . . . . .
Aquamacs under the GNU General Public License. Type C-h C-c to view.
The mark is not set now, so there is no region
Loading gnus...done
Loading gnus-start...done
Loading gnus-agent...done
gnus-group-quit: Wrong type argument: symbolp, (nntp "192.168.1.100")

I don't understand that because it worked earlier today with 
192.168.1.100 (that's my news-server). What I did was to insert 
something in my ~/.emacs file which I found on google, but after this 
message appeared I deleted it again and now gnus won't start.

Well, the *Groups* buffer starts, but it's empty. And the gnus-menu bar 
isn't there... Really annoying... How do I reset everything (delete all 
the data that gnus has made) ?


Best regards / Med venlig hilsen
Martin Jørgensen

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Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Malte Spiess]

Martin Jørgensen <unoder.spam@spam.jay.net> writes:

> Final problem I think: Gnus stopped working now...
> [...]
> Well, the *Groups* buffer starts, but it's empty. And the gnus-menu
> bar isn't there... Really annoying... How do I reset everything
> (delete all the data that gnus has made) ?

Well, that should be in the .gnus file. (Never delete, only move!)
A different proposal:
Why don't you post your .gnus so we can tell you what's wrong?
AND: REALLY use customize next time, it's way easier to start with!
Once you understand how things work, you can switch to editing the .gnus
file directly.

> Best regards / Med venlig hilsen
> Martin Jørgensen

Greetings

Malte

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Martin Jørgensen]

Malte Spiess wrote:
> Martin Jørgensen <unoder.spam@spam.jay.net> writes:
> 
> 
>>Final problem I think: Gnus stopped working now...
>>[...]
>>Well, the *Groups* buffer starts, but it's empty. And the gnus-menu
>>bar isn't there... Really annoying... How do I reset everything
>>(delete all the data that gnus has made) ?
> 
> 
> Well, that should be in the .gnus file. (Never delete, only move!)
> A different proposal:
> Why don't you post your .gnus so we can tell you what's wrong?

I didn't change anything in my .gnus file. Actually I don't even think I 
have a .gnus-file, since nothing showed up when I did this:

Apple:~ mac$ cd
Apple:~ mac$ find . -name ".gnus"

I only changed something in my .emacs-file. And then I changed it back 
after gnus stopped working... The whole .emacs is here:

- - - - -

(put 'dired-find-alternate-file 'disabled nil)


      (setq TeX-auto-save t)
      (setq TeX-parse-self t)
      (setq-default TeX-master nil)
   (add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook #'LaTeX-install-toolbar)

(cd "~/Desktop")

(setq gnus-select-method '((nntp "192.168.1.100")))

- - - - - -

I can't remember what I had there before... Something about 
identity-information I think... And my smtp-server + signature, AFAIR.

Server 192.168.1.100 is because I'm running leafnode for getting 
news-messages.

> AND: REALLY use customize next time, it's way easier to start with!
> Once you understand how things work, you can switch to editing the .gnus
> file directly.

Ok, I'll try to do that then. But customize has so many options, that I 
get confused and don't know where to look :-(


Best regards / Med venlig hilsen
Martin Jørgensen

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Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Tassilo Horn]

Martin Jørgensen <unoder.spam@spam.jay.net> writes:

Hi Martin,

> (setq gnus-select-method '((nntp "192.168.1.100")))

I think this should be

    (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "192.168.1.100"))

Bye,
Tassilo
-- 
A morning without coffee is like something without something else.

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Karl Kleinpaste]

Martin Jørgensen <unoder.spam@spam.jay.net> writes:
>> (setq gnus-select-method '((nntp "192.168.1.100")))

Tassilo Horn <heimdall@uni-koblenz.de> writes:
> I think this should be
>     (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "192.168.1.100"))

Yes.  What Martin needs to bear in mind is that the distinguished
select method exists alone in one (singularly-named) variable, hence
it is exactly one list.  Other select methods are contained
collectively in another (plurally-named) variable, gnus-secondary-
select-methods, and it is therefore a list of lists -- so if it
contains a single such method, the list-enclosing parentheses must in
turn be encased in another pair of parentheses, within which other
such method lists might appear.

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Martin Jørgensen]

Karl Kleinpaste wrote:
> Martin Jørgensen <unoder.spam@spam.jay.net> writes:
> 
>>>(setq gnus-select-method '((nntp "192.168.1.100")))
> 
> 
> Tassilo Horn <heimdall@uni-koblenz.de> writes:
> 
>>I think this should be
>>    (setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "192.168.1.100"))
> 
> 
> Yes.  What Martin needs to bear in mind is that the distinguished
> select method exists alone in one (singularly-named) variable, hence
> it is exactly one list.  Other select methods are contained
> collectively in another (plurally-named) variable, gnus-secondary-
> select-methods, and it is therefore a list of lists -- so if it
> contains a single such method, the list-enclosing parentheses must in
> turn be encased in another pair of parentheses, within which other
> such method lists might appear.

Wow... Thanks a lot. Now it works again........ I wanted to post a 
"thank you message" from inside gnus so I tried to post a test-message 
to a .test-group, so I tried this:

Newsgroups: dk.test
Subject: hello, there
X-Draft-From: ("dk.test" "")
From: test-user-full-name <test_mac@Apple.local>
Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 21:25:34 +0200
Message-ID: <m1d5e037wx.fsf@Apple.local>
User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.50 (darwin)
Cancel-Lock: sha1:6PW6NG/bR9amqbaZ8D8EqpUHOn4=
--text follows this line--
asdfklalalkjsljkasasljkaslkjjkdsjlkasadjsjkd;a;jsks;ajlk;jlsfd;ljakfsl;jkdds;jlkadskjlajlskjdflkkjla;sj;klfdsa;jlafsd;klja;kljas;ljkdsl;as;fdsajl;kssd;klj;kljasdaj;klsdakl;js;lsjkadfaj;klasdfkjlsdfkljk


But the problem is:

Couldn't send message via news: 441 Post rejected, formatting error: 
Message-ID: header contains invalid domain name part.
Auto-saving...

What does it mean by that?


Best regards / Med venlig hilsen
Martin Jørgensen

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Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Reiner Steib]

On Fri, May 26 2006, Martin Jørgensen wrote:

> Message-ID: <m1d5e037wx.fsf@Apple.local>
                              ^^^^^^^^^^^

[...]
> Couldn't send message via news: 441 Post rejected, formatting error:
> Message-ID: header contains invalid domain name part.
> What does it mean by that?

It means the domain part "Apple.local" is invalid.

This is covered by the Gnus FAQ:

,----[ (info "(gnus)[5.12]") ]
| Question 5.12
| .............
| 
| People tell me my Message-IDs are not correct, why aren't they and how
| to fix it?
`----
 
Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
---ooO-(_)-Ooo---  |  PGP key available  |  http://rsteib.home.pages.de/

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Martin Jørgensen]

Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> writes:

> On Fri, May 26 2006, Martin Jørgensen wrote:
>
>> Message-ID: <m1d5e037wx.fsf@Apple.local>
>                               ^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> [...]
>> Couldn't send message via news: 441 Post rejected, formatting error:
>> Message-ID: header contains invalid domain name part.
>> What does it mean by that?
>
> It means the domain part "Apple.local" is invalid.
>
> This is covered by the Gnus FAQ:
>
> ,----[ (info "(gnus)[5.12]") ]
> | Question 5.12

Thanks a lot! Everything seem to work now - this message is from gnus...

But I still think I should follow this group for a while and perhaps google for some gnus tutorials or something... There are still a lot of small "problems" that annoys me a bit...


Best regards
Martin Jørgensen

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Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Tassilo Horn]

unoder.spam@spam.jay.net (Martin Jørgensen) writes:

Hi Martin,

> Thanks a lot! Everything seem to work now - this message is from
> gnus...

Congratulations!

> But I still think I should follow this group for a while and perhaps
> google for some gnus tutorials

The tutorial is here: http://my.gnus.org/tutorial/

> or something... There are still a lot of small "problems" that annoys
> me a bit...

One of which is that you poste too long lines, right?

To automatically wrap lines at 72 chars, put something like that into
your ~/.emacs (or ~/.gnus.el, but message-mode belongs to emacs, so I
have it in its init file):

(add-hook 'message-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
            (setq fill-column 72)
            (turn-on-auto-fill)))

To reformat a paragraph simply hit `M-q'.

,----[ C-h k M-q ]
| M-q runs the command fill-paragraph
|    which is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `fill.el'.
| It is bound to M-q.
| (fill-paragraph ARG)
| 
| Fill paragraph at or after point.  Prefix ARG means justify as well.
| If `sentence-end-double-space' is non-nil, then period followed by one
| space does not end a sentence, so don't break a line there.  the
| variable `fill-column' controls the width for filling.
| 
| If `fill-paragraph-function' is non-nil, we call it (passing our
| argument to it), and if it returns non-nil, we simply return its
| value.
| 
| If `fill-paragraph-function' is nil, return the `fill-prefix' used for
| filling.
`----

Bye,
Tassilo
-- 
"Emacs is not a development tool but a way of life."
     - David Kastrup in alt.religion.emacs -

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Martin Jørgensen]

Tassilo Horn <heimdall@uni-koblenz.de> writes:

> unoder.spam@spam.jay.net (Martin Jørgensen) writes:
>
> Hi Martin,
>
>> Thanks a lot! Everything seem to work now - this message is from
>> gnus...
>
> Congratulations!

Hehe. Thanks :-)

>> But I still think I should follow this group for a while and perhaps
>> google for some gnus tutorials
>
> The tutorial is here: http://my.gnus.org/tutorial/

I looked at some of it and will look at it again later. I can now do the most basic things...

>> or something... There are still a lot of small "problems" that annoys
>> me a bit...
>
> One of which is that you poste too long lines, right?

It doesn't annoy me and nobody complained until now. Is it a problem? Because I assumed that most usenet-clients just wrap long lines so they don't see any problem at all?

> To automatically wrap lines at 72 chars, put something like that into
> your ~/.emacs (or ~/.gnus.el, but message-mode belongs to emacs, so I
> have it in its init file):
>
> (add-hook 'message-mode-hook
>           (lambda ()
>             (setq fill-column 72)
>             (turn-on-auto-fill)))

Ok, thanks. Suppose I want to outcomment something, should I then use ";;" in front of each line? I saw something about ";;" in the beginning of some lines...

> To reformat a paragraph simply hit `M-q'.

Ok, thanks. I'll probably need that.

> ,----[ C-h k M-q ]
> | M-q runs the command fill-paragraph
> |    which is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `fill.el'.
> | It is bound to M-q.
> | (fill-paragraph ARG)
-snip (got it)-

My next problems are for instance:

1) Currently I use this "aquamacs emacs" since it was shipped with auctex and previewtex and I don't know how to setup that from a "clean emacs". So it constantly opens stupid windows that I can't "C-x o" between.... I have to mouse-click them to select them... Annoying.

2) If I try open gnus from "yaced emacs" I get this:

Loading help-fns...done
Loading gnus-start...done
Loading gnus-agent...done
Wrote /Users/mac/.newsrc-dribble
Gnus auto-save file exists.  Do you want to read it? (y or n) 
Reading /Users/mac/.newsrc.eld...
Reading active file from 192.168.1.134 via nntp...
Loading timezone...done
No new newsgroups
Checking new news...
byte-code: gnus-agent-read-agentview no longer supports version 1.  Stop gnus, manually evaluate gnus-agent-convert-to-compressed-agentview, then restart gnus.

Anyone know what that's about?

3) In mozilla thunderbird I enabled this option "Only show threads with new postings" so it'll automatically show the whole thread *only if* there are new replies in that thread. Threads where everything is read won't be shown...

This is really nice - is it possible to do something with gnus? Sometimes I used this "A T"-thing to see old posts in the current thread...


4) What's this ~/.newsrc-dribble file doing?


That was just what I could think of now...


Best regards
Martin Jørgensen

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Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Tassilo Horn]

unoder.spam@spam.jay.net (Martin Jørgensen) writes:

Hi Martin,

>> One of which is that you poste too long lines, right?
>
> It doesn't annoy me and nobody complained until now. Is it a problem?
> Because I assumed that most usenet-clients just wrap long lines so
> they don't see any problem at all?

The problem is that quoting is harder to do (for inferior newsreaders
than Gnus). So it's more or less a common rule to wrap lines statically
at 72 columns.

> Ok, thanks. Suppose I want to outcomment something, should I then use
> ";;" in front of each line?

Yes, but the number of semicolon is not important. (It merely affects
indentation.)

> 1) Currently I use this "aquamacs emacs" since it was shipped with
> auctex and previewtex and I don't know how to setup that from a "clean
> emacs". So it constantly opens stupid windows that I can't "C-x o"
> between.... I have to mouse-click them to select them... Annoying.

To switch between "Frames" (thats emacsian for Windows in sense of
window manager units) use `C-x 5 o'.

BTW: I've heard that Aquamacs is not that good. At least it's a
de-emacsified emacs. So probably you want to switch to yaced [1].

> 2) If I try open gnus from "yaced emacs" I get this:

Oh, I see you tried yaced. :)

> Loading help-fns...done
> Loading gnus-start...done
> Loading gnus-agent...done
> Wrote /Users/mac/.newsrc-dribble
> Gnus auto-save file exists.  Do you want to read it? (y or n) 
> Reading /Users/mac/.newsrc.eld...
> Reading active file from 192.168.1.134 via nntp...
> Loading timezone...done
> No new newsgroups
> Checking new news...
> byte-code: gnus-agent-read-agentview no longer supports version 1.
> Stop gnus, manually evaluate
> gnus-agent-convert-to-compressed-agentview, then restart gnus.
>
> Anyone know what that's about?

When the error happens, do 

  `M-x gnus-agent-convert-to-compressed-agentview' 

and restart Gnus.

> 3) In mozilla thunderbird I enabled this option "Only show threads
> with new postings" so it'll automatically show the whole thread *only
> if* there are new replies in that thread. Threads where everything is
> read won't be shown...
>
> This is really nice - is it possible to do something with gnus?

Sure, that's the default. Did you set gnus-fetch-old-headers to
anything?

> 4) What's this ~/.newsrc-dribble file doing?

It saves what you've read, scores and such. When you exit Gnus, this
file will somehow be merged into .newsrc.eld. If Gnus/Emacs crashes,
then it will be used to recover your session.

Bye,
Tassilo

Footnotes: 
[1] http://yaced.sourceforge.net/
-- 
"Emacs is not a development tool but a way of life."
     - David Kastrup in alt.religion.emacs -

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Reiner Steib]

On Sun, May 28 2006, Martin Jørgensen wrote:

> byte-code: gnus-agent-read-agentview no longer supports version 1.
> Stop gnus, manually evaluate
> gnus-agent-convert-to-compressed-agentview, then restart gnus.
>
> Anyone know what that's about?

Don't use yaced if they offer only outdated CVS versions.  This Gnus
bug was fixed in Emacs CVS on 2005-12-09.

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
---ooO-(_)-Ooo---  |  PGP key available  |  http://rsteib.home.pages.de/

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[David Kastrup]

Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> writes:

> On Sun, May 28 2006, Martin Jørgensen wrote:
>
>> byte-code: gnus-agent-read-agentview no longer supports version 1.
>> Stop gnus, manually evaluate
>> gnus-agent-convert-to-compressed-agentview, then restart gnus.
>>
>> Anyone know what that's about?
>
> Don't use yaced if they offer only outdated CVS versions.  This Gnus
> bug was fixed in Emacs CVS on 2005-12-09.

"Don't use" is step #2 with free software.  Step #1 is to mail the
author and ask whether he intends to release something to fix this
soon.  It's just a mail, not a phone sex line, and you don't get
blocked by support golems.  So it is always worth an attempt.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Reiner Steib]

On Sun, May 28 2006, Martin Jørgensen wrote:

> 4) What's this ~/.newsrc-dribble file doing?

(info "(gnus)Auto Save"); <== Press C-x C-e here!

,----[ (info "(gnus)[2.1]") ]
| Question 2.1
| ............
| 
| Every time I start Gnus I get a message "Gnus auto-save file exists. Do
| you want to read it?", what does this mean and how to prevent it?
`----

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
---ooO-(_)-Ooo---  |  PGP key available  |  http://rsteib.home.pages.de/

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Martin Jørgensen]

Tassilo Horn <heimdall@uni-koblenz.de> writes:

> unoder.spam@spam.jay.net (Martin Jørgensen) writes:

-snip-
>> 1) Currently I use this "aquamacs emacs" since it was shipped with
>> auctex and previewtex and I don't know how to setup that from a "clean
>> emacs". So it constantly opens stupid windows that I can't "C-x o"
>> between.... I have to mouse-click them to select them... Annoying.
>
> To switch between "Frames" (thats emacsian for Windows in sense of
> window manager units) use `C-x 5 o'.

Oh, thanks. Nice.

> BTW: I've heard that Aquamacs is not that good. At least it's a
> de-emacsified emacs. So probably you want to switch to yaced [1].

I read that too...

>> 2) If I try open gnus from "yaced emacs" I get this:
>
> Oh, I see you tried yaced. :)
>
>> Loading help-fns...done
>> Loading gnus-start...done
>> Loading gnus-agent...done
>> Wrote /Users/mac/.newsrc-dribble
>> Gnus auto-save file exists.  Do you want to read it? (y or n) 
>> Reading /Users/mac/.newsrc.eld...
>> Reading active file from 192.168.1.134 via nntp...
>> Loading timezone...done
>> No new newsgroups
>> Checking new news...
>> byte-code: gnus-agent-read-agentview no longer supports version 1.
>> Stop gnus, manually evaluate
>> gnus-agent-convert-to-compressed-agentview, then restart gnus.
>>
>> Anyone know what that's about?
>
> When the error happens, do 
>
>   `M-x gnus-agent-convert-to-compressed-agentview' 
>
> and restart Gnus.

It just writes [No match] next to the text.

>> 3) In mozilla thunderbird I enabled this option "Only show threads
>> with new postings" so it'll automatically show the whole thread *only
>> if* there are new replies in that thread. Threads where everything is
>> read won't be shown...
>>
>> This is really nice - is it possible to do something with gnus?
>
> Sure, that's the default. Did you set gnus-fetch-old-headers to
> anything?

I think the default is that it only shows new messages... But it doesn't automatically show the old messages in that thread. I read something about how to make it show all messages in a thread (including old ones) but I don't want to do that manually for every thread. I didn't set any gnus-fetch-old-headers value, at least that I know of.


Another small "problem":

My signature file contains the words below including "Best regards". So I always have to delete the first ocurrence of '-' + '-' + ' ' but my signature file already contains that (just above the "-----------------------...." line). Is it possible to have the contents of the signature file appended to each message without emacs inserts the extra signature delimiter '-' + '-' + ' '? I hoped so...


Best regards
Martin Jørgensen

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Home of Martin Jørgensen - http://www.martinjoergensen.dk

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Reiner Steib]

On Mon, May 29 2006, Martin Jørgensen wrote:

> My signature file contains the words below including "Best
> regards". So I always have to delete the first ocurrence of '-' +
> '-' + ' ' but my signature file already contains that (just above
> the "-----------------------...." line). Is it possible to have the
> contents of the signature file appended to each message without
> emacs inserts the extra signature delimiter '-' + '-' + ' '? I hoped
> so...

See the `body' attribute in the manual:

,----[ (info "(gnus)Posting Styles") ]
|               (body "You are fired.\n\nSincerely, your boss.")
`----

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
---ooO-(_)-Ooo---  |  PGP key available  |  http://rsteib.home.pages.de/

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Reiner Steib]

On Sun, May 28 2006, David Kastrup wrote:

> Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> writes:
>> Don't use yaced if they offer only outdated CVS versions.  This Gnus
>> bug was fixed in Emacs CVS on 2005-12-09.
>
> "Don't use" is step #2 with free software.  Step #1 is to mail the
> author and ask whether he intends to release something to fix this
> soon.  

You might be right, but if someone distributes a random CVS snapshot
of Emacs which is intended for end-users, (s)he should make sure to
update it more often (the latest version of yaced seems to be more
than one year old).

Note that this particular bug was never present in any released Gnus
version.

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
---ooO-(_)-Ooo---  |  PGP key available  |  http://rsteib.home.pages.de/

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[David Kastrup]

Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> writes:

> On Sun, May 28 2006, David Kastrup wrote:
>
>> Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> writes:
>>> Don't use yaced if they offer only outdated CVS versions.  This Gnus
>>> bug was fixed in Emacs CVS on 2005-12-09.
>>
>> "Don't use" is step #2 with free software.  Step #1 is to mail the
>> author and ask whether he intends to release something to fix this
>> soon.  
>
> You might be right, but if someone distributes a random CVS snapshot
> of Emacs which is intended for end-users, (s)he should make sure to
> update it more often (the latest version of yaced seems to be more
> than one year old).

Why should he, if judging from the feedback there are no users or they
don't have any problems?

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Tassilo Horn]

unoder.spam@spam.jay.net (Martin Jørgensen) writes:

Hi Martin,

>>> 3) In mozilla thunderbird I enabled this option "Only show threads
>>> with new postings" so it'll automatically show the whole thread
>>> *only if* there are new replies in that thread. Threads where
>>> everything is read won't be shown...
>>>
>>> This is really nice - is it possible to do something with gnus?
>>
>> Sure, that's the default. Did you set gnus-fetch-old-headers to
>> anything?
>
> I think the default is that it only shows new messages... But it
> doesn't automatically show the old messages in that thread.

Sorry, I got you wrong. See

,----[ C-h v gnus-fetch-old-headers RET ]
| gnus-fetch-old-headers is a variable defined in `gnus-sum.el'.
| Its value is some
| 
| Documentation:
| *Non-nil means that Gnus will try to build threads by grabbing old
| headers.  If an unread article in the group refers to an older,
| already read (or just marked as read) article, the old article will
| not normally be displayed in the Summary buffer.  If this variable is
| t, Gnus will attempt to grab the headers to the old articles, and
| thereby build complete threads.  If it has the value `some', all old
| headers will be fetched but only enough headers to connect otherwise
| loose threads will be displayed.  This variable can also be a number.
| In that case, no more than that number of old headers will be fetched.
| If it has the value `invisible', all old headers will be fetched, but
| none will be displayed.
| 
| The server has to support NOV for any of this to work.
| 
| This feature can seriously impact performance it ignores all
| locally cached header entries.
| 
| You can customize this variable.
`----

So set it to t, if you want complete threads, or set it to 'some (that's
what I do), to get as many old articles as are needed to build a
complete sumthread.

If it's set to nil (the default) no old headers will be fetched.

So put either

  (setq gnus-fetch-old-headers t) ;; complete threads

or

  (setq gnus-fetch-old-headers 'some) ;; complete subthreads

into your ~/.gnus.el.

Bye,
Tassilo
-- 
"Emacs is not a development tool but a way of life."
     - David Kastrup in alt.religion.emacs -

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Martin Jørgensen]

Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> writes:

> On Mon, May 29 2006, Martin Jørgensen wrote:
>
>> My signature file contains the words below including "Best
>> regards". So I always have to delete the first ocurrence of '-' +
>> '-' + ' ' but my signature file already contains that (just above
>> the "-----------------------...." line). Is it possible to have the
>> contents of the signature file appended to each message without
>> emacs inserts the extra signature delimiter '-' + '-' + ' '? I hoped
>> so...
>
> See the `body' attribute in the manual:
>
> ,----[ (info "(gnus)Posting Styles") ]
> |               (body "You are fired.\n\nSincerely, your boss.")
> `----

Thanks a lot. I finally got it working...

But I had to restart gnus and quit emacs a couple of times and in those
cases I would like to know: How do I mark your message as "unread" so
it'll automatically show up when I have restarted gnus? I tried to look
in the manual, but there was so much information. I finally figured out
if I pushed something like "d" (AFAIR) the big "R" (for "read") changed
to a small "r", but I never got any closer.


Best regards
Martin Jørgensen

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Home of Martin Jørgensen - http://www.martinjoergensen.dk

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Martin Jørgensen]

Tassilo Horn <heimdall@uni-koblenz.de> writes:

> unoder.spam@spam.jay.net (Martin Jørgensen) writes:
-snip-
>> I think the default is that it only shows new messages... But it
>> doesn't automatically show the old messages in that thread.
>
> Sorry, I got you wrong. See
>
> ,----[ C-h v gnus-fetch-old-headers RET ]
> | gnus-fetch-old-headers is a variable defined in `gnus-sum.el'.
> | Its value is some
> | 
> | Documentation:
> | *Non-nil means that Gnus will try to build threads by grabbing old
> | headers.  If an unread article in the group refers to an older,
> | already read (or just marked as read) article, the old article will
> | not normally be displayed in the Summary buffer.  If this variable is
> | t, Gnus will attempt to grab the headers to the old articles, and
> | thereby build complete threads.  If it has the value `some', all old
> | headers will be fetched but only enough headers to connect otherwise
> | loose threads will be displayed.  This variable can also be a number.
> | In that case, no more than that number of old headers will be fetched.
> | If it has the value `invisible', all old headers will be fetched, but
> | none will be displayed.
> | 
> | The server has to support NOV for any of this to work.
> | 
> | This feature can seriously impact performance it ignores all
> | locally cached header entries.
> | 
> | You can customize this variable.
> `----
>
> So set it to t, if you want complete threads, or set it to 'some (that's
> what I do), to get as many old articles as are needed to build a
> complete sumthread.
>
> If it's set to nil (the default) no old headers will be fetched.
>
> So put either
>
>   (setq gnus-fetch-old-headers t) ;; complete threads
>
> or
>
>   (setq gnus-fetch-old-headers 'some) ;; complete subthreads
>
> into your ~/.gnus.el.

Thanks a lot - that was pretty clear and easy to understand.

I've now set it to "complete subthreads" and tried it a bit. It shows a
couple of old postings now, but not many... I might experiment a bit
with this, but it looks better now...


Best regards
Martin Jørgensen

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Home of Martin Jørgensen - http://www.martinjoergensen.dk

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Reiner Steib]

On Wed, May 31 2006, Martin Jørgensen wrote:

> How do I mark your message as "unread" so it'll automatically show
> up when I have restarted gnus? 

See (info "(gnus)Setting Marks").  Especially `!' and `M-u':

,----[ (info "(gnus)Setting Marks") ]
| `M c'
| `M-u'
|      Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
|      (`gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward').  In other words, mark the
|      article as unread.
| 
| `M t'
| `!'
|      Tick the current article (`gnus-summary-tick-article-forward').
|      *Note Article Caching::.
`----

> I tried to look in the manual, but there was so much information.

When I use `i mark' (lookup "mark" in the index) in the Gnus manual,
the first match is (info "(gnus)Marking Articles") which contains an
menu entry called "How to set and remove marks." pointing to the
appropriate node:

,----[ (info "(gnus)Marking Articles") ]
| * Setting Marks::               How to set and remove marks.
`----

If you tell us the keywords you (unsuccessfully) used to search in the
manual, we might be able to improve the manual.

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
---ooO-(_)-Ooo---  |  PGP key available  |  http://rsteib.home.pages.de/

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Martin Jørgensen]

David Kastrup wrote:
> Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> writes:
> 
> 
>>On Sun, May 28 2006, Martin Jørgensen wrote:
>>
>>
>>>byte-code: gnus-agent-read-agentview no longer supports version 1.
>>>Stop gnus, manually evaluate
>>>gnus-agent-convert-to-compressed-agentview, then restart gnus.
>>>
>>>Anyone know what that's about?
>>
>>Don't use yaced if they offer only outdated CVS versions.  This Gnus
>>bug was fixed in Emacs CVS on 2005-12-09.
> 
> 
> "Don't use" is step #2 with free software.  Step #1 is to mail the
> author and ask whether he intends to release something to fix this
> soon.  It's just a mail, not a phone sex line, and you don't get
> blocked by support golems.  So it is always worth an attempt.

I did that and he replied:

"Sadly, I will not be able to address this soon. I will check it and see 
if I can do something about it."

So even though people don't recommend Aquamacs Emacs I don't think I 
have any alternative. I just hate those damn "#€"(€#!"(%!"(€ windows, 
because sometimes if I have like 5-6 open windows, they're on top of 
each other and then I have to move the mouse to move the window.

I found out I can activate them with C-x 4 C-o and C-x 5 C-o, but it's 
always the same direction I go through the windows.... I don't know if 
it's possible to walk 1 back, if I found out I needed the previously 
selected frame/window. And then I have experimented with opening a 
buffer with C-x C-b or C-x 5 C-b and yet those damn windows stick behind 
some of the other windows, sometimes...


Best regards
Martin Jørgensen

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Home of Martin Jørgensen - http://www.martinjoergensen.dk

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Martin Jørgensen]

Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> writes:

> On Wed, May 31 2006, Martin Jørgensen wrote:
>
>> How do I mark your message as "unread" so it'll automatically show
>> up when I have restarted gnus? 
>
> See (info "(gnus)Setting Marks").  Especially `!' and `M-u':

Oh, damn. I should have seen that and perhaps I did, but got confused by
this "Clear all readedness-marks". I should have read the last in that line.

> ,----[ (info "(gnus)Setting Marks") ]
> | `M c'
> | `M-u'
> |      Clear all readedness-marks from the current article
> |      (`gnus-summary-clear-mark-forward').  In other words, mark the
> |      article as unread.
> | 
> | `M t'
> | `!'
> |      Tick the current article (`gnus-summary-tick-article-forward').
> |      *Note Article Caching::.
> `----
>
>> I tried to look in the manual, but there was so much information.
>
> When I use `i mark' (lookup "mark" in the index) in the Gnus manual,
> the first match is (info "(gnus)Marking Articles") which contains an
> menu entry called "How to set and remove marks." pointing to the
> appropriate node:
>
> ,----[ (info "(gnus)Marking Articles") ]
> | * Setting Marks::               How to set and remove marks.
> `----

I think I looked there too, but now I can see it's pretty straight
forward, as you're also writing.

> If you tell us the keywords you (unsuccessfully) used to search in the
> manual, we might be able to improve the manual.

I didn't use them, because I forgot the difference between "apropos" and
all the other C-h things... So therefore I just got into those
"info"-pages somehow and manually navigated down to gnus with C-p +
C-n + enter... Then I navigated up with U, next with n and space and p
for previous... So I typed space a lot of times... But that ofcourse
also isn't the most efficient way of skimming the manual, but the good
thing is that next time I probably better regognize where something I'm
looking for is described...

For instance I was glad to find out what those letters meant: "O", "R",
"A".. etc, next to the name in the summary-view... I think I can find it
quicker and quicker, the more I practice looking in the manual - and it
actually looks like a good manual, like other people are telling too...


Best regards
Martin Jørgensen

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[David Kastrup]

Martin Jørgensen <unoder.spam@spam.jay.net> writes:

> David Kastrup wrote:
>> Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> writes:
>>
>>
>>>On Sun, May 28 2006, Martin Jørgensen wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>byte-code: gnus-agent-read-agentview no longer supports version 1.
>>>>Stop gnus, manually evaluate
>>>>gnus-agent-convert-to-compressed-agentview, then restart gnus.
>>>>
>>>>Anyone know what that's about?
>>>
>>>Don't use yaced if they offer only outdated CVS versions.  This Gnus
>>>bug was fixed in Emacs CVS on 2005-12-09.
>>
>>
>> "Don't use" is step #2 with free software.  Step #1 is to mail the
>> author and ask whether he intends to release something to fix this
>> soon.  It's just a mail, not a phone sex line, and you don't get
>> blocked by support golems.  So it is always worth an attempt.
>
> I did that and he replied:
>
> "Sadly, I will not be able to address this soon. I will check it and
> see if I can do something about it."

Pity.

> So even though people don't recommend Aquamacs Emacs I don't think I
> have any alternative.

You can always compile your own if things come to worst.

> I just hate those damn "#€"(€#!"(%!"(€ windows, because sometimes if
> I have like 5-6 open windows, they're on top of each other and then
> I have to move the mouse to move the window.

There is supposed to be some setting you can turn off.

> I found out I can activate them with C-x 4 C-o and C-x 5 C-o, but it's
> always the same direction I go through the windows....

More like C-x o and C-x 5 o, and M-- before them will go backward.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[david.reitter]

Martin Jørgensen wrote:

> So even though people don't recommend Aquamacs Emacs I don't think I
> have any alternative. I just hate those damn "#€"(€#!"(%!"(€ windows,
> because sometimes if I have like 5-6 open windows, they're on top of
> each other and then I have to move the mouse to move the window

Did you bother to check the FAQ or the Options menu?
There's a menu item "Display Buffers in Separate Frames".

Try the Emacs-on-Mac-OS X mailing list. There's a fairly large group of
Aquamacs users.

Re: a couple of newbie questions with gnus

[Aking TIAN]

i think so
-- 
Emacs was originally a text editor, but it became a way of life and a religion.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.