From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.user/4141 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Tim McNamara Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.user Subject: Re: How to set up gnus email for novices with little mastery. Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 11:08:39 -0500 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1138670123 22019 80.91.229.2 (31 Jan 2006 01:15:23 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 01:15:23 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: nobody Tue Jan 17 17:33:18 2006 Original-Path: quimby.gnus.org!newsfeed1.e.nsc.no!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!news-out.visi.com!petbe.visi.com!gemini.bitstream.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.gnus User-Agent: Gnus/5.1006 (Gnus v5.10.6) Emacs/21.3.50 (darwin) Cancel-Lock: sha1:NL6zX8/8shekd41Xl4j+dmo4oFQ= Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: fe147580.news.bitstream.net Original-X-Trace: 1096474119 gemini.bitstream.net 439 216.243.177.155 Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@bitstream.net Original-Xref: bridgekeeper.physik.uni-ulm.de gnus-emacs-gnus:4282 Original-Lines: 46 X-Gnus-Article-Number: 4282 Tue Jan 17 17:33:18 2006 Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.user:4141 Archived-At: Don Saklad writes: > Thank you Tim McNamara ! > > How do you figure out backend neither having any experience in > thinking about it nor even knowing the significance of backend ?... > > Backend appears too complicated a thing for many people with no > mastery or it would require dedicated study, too steep a learning > curve of more than a mere few moments. I don't know if there is a default backend for Gnus per se, I just went with nnmail by chance, basically. I'm perfectly satisfied with it. The upside of Gnus is that it's very powerful with many many options. The downside of Gnus is that it's very powerful with many many options. While it's not user-unfriendly IMHO, it is not beginner friendly. It requires thinking about things that one may not know how to think about yet. This is complicated by Emacs and Gnus using terminology (hooks, yank, kill-ring, etc.) that is not shared with non-Emacs applications or operating systems (Emacs predating most of them by a good many years). Indeed, I think that's the steepest part of the learning curve. If one wanted to make Emacs more accessible to most users, the terminology should be revised to be more consistent with what Windows and Mac users are familiar with- cutting, pasting, clipboard, etc. Of course, the other side of the coin is that this would baffle and obfuscate the entire installed user base of Emacs! Users migrating to Gnus and Emacs from other Unix applications might have an easier time than those of us coming from Windows or Mac OS/OS X since we don't edit preference files directly and aren't used to doing this. For GUI-babies like me, whose first computer was a Mac 512Ke bought in 1986, having a nice little window (buffer) in which to enter the relevant server and user information, which would then write to .gnus, would make things much simpler. I would think that the Customize menu would be able to accommodate this. BTW, it should be easier to navigate to the Gnus customization group with the Options menu- perhaps the menu should automatically display a "Customize " item? This would prevent having to hunt through the various Customize groups hierarchies. If this isn't possible, I would think that one could set up a sample .gnus for new users to edit, using nnmail (or nnimap, as the case may be). This would get them started quickly with a backend that's pretty easy to use.