Re: How to develop an automatic set up experience for gnus email.

Re: How to develop an automatic set up experience for gnus email.

[David Z Maze]

Don Saklad <dsaklad@nestle.ai.mit.edu> writes:

> How could an automatic set up experience be developed for gnus email
> so that a nonprogrammer could run it and have it set up itself or
> respond to a series of questions as it sets up itself that allow
> for misunderstandings of the questions and errors on the part of
> a novice?...

There are a number of MUAs aimed towards people who don't want to hack
Lisp to read their mail.  Pine seems popular, and can be fairly
featureful if you enable enough of its options (or uncomplicated if
you don't).

You also might consider looking at, for example,
http://groups.google.com/ for archives of this newsgroup; this
question has been asked several times before, and has gotten several
answers in the past (including pointers to the my.gnus.org Gnus
Dotfile Generator).

-- 
David Maze             dmaze@mit.edu          http://www.mit.edu/~dmaze/
"Theoretical politics is interesting.  Politicking should be illegal."
	-- Abra Mitchell

Re: How to develop an automatic set up experience for gnus email.

[Kurt B. Kaiser]

Don Saklad <dsaklad@nestle.ai.mit.edu> writes:

> Thank you for your interest!
> 
> Regrettably, the resources mentioned don't always work as a straight
> forward setup of gnus email for people unfamiliar with a level of
> knowledge that doesn't have to be the barrier that it is for novices.

You are correct IMHO.  However, it is worth the effort especially if you
get a lot of mail and/or use mail lists.  The latter end up looking 
just like newsgroups.

Don't attempt to master it all at once.  Start slowly.  Use info gnus
and use the "s" (search) function.  Also read info message!

I run procmail for spam filtration, then split in gnus.  It would be
faster to do my simple splits in procmail but haven't got to it yet.

KBK


Here's my gnus-cheat-sheet, FWIW.  The stuff I do almost every day.
======================================================================
* Groups (Group Buffer):
-----------------------
To subscribe/unsubscribe: in Group buffer, use U
To update the groups: g
To enter a group: <enter>
To enter a group showing both read and unread: C-u
	Then to remove the read marks: M-u
To enter a group without scoring, show all: C-u M-enter
To mark a group as read: c  (not C, that marks all ticked as read, too)
To edit a group's parameters directly: G p   otherwise, G c
To change a group's level: S l
To sort the group buffer: G S a (by alpha), then G S l (by level)


* Articles (i.e. Summary Buffer):
--------------------------------
To keep articles visible, tick them with !
   To remove the !, use d
   To remove all marks, use M-u
To keep them around locally even though expired on server, mark with *
   To remove the *, use M-*
To mark article as read, use d
To mark all articles as read, use M C
To mark all articles up to point as read, use M H
To hide threads: T H
To show threads: T S
To fetch the whole thread: A T
To kill thread: k (then n for next) (What's T o ?)
To remove a process mark: M-#
To process mark the thread: T #
To process mark all articles: M P a
To do something with the process marked articles: M-& followed by command
To limit by author /a   by subject /s   to un-limit /w

* News:
------------------
To reply w/o quote: f
To reply with quote: F  You can then mark part of the quote and hit C-c C-v
      and that part will be kept, the rest deleted.

* Mail:
------------------
To send mail with a specific Gcc, set it for the group with G c and then either
   send from within the group or C-u m on the group from the Group buffer.
To move articles: Use # to mark them, then B m and supply name of folder
To clear a group: enter with C-u then process mark all with M P a 
   Then issue B DEL to delete them all.
To toggle header display:  t
(Summary mail commands) Send a reply to author:  r
(3.5.1)			Send a reply to author including original:  R
			Forward to someone else as mime attach: S o m
				(forward inline w/headers: C-u S o m) 
                                (forward inline w/headers: C-u 4 S o m)
                        "Resend" to someone else: S D r
                        Resend a bounced mail, allow addr change: S D b
			Send an email: m
To show the raw article: C-u g  (see Paging node)

To mark an email as expirable: E or M e (From Setting Marks)
	What does this have to do with the other newsgroup marks?
To mark all process marked mail as exirable: M-& E
To delete an email: B DEL (This and following from Mail Goup Commands)
To expire all expirable articles: B e
To delete all expirable articles: B M-C-e

* Mime Parts:
----------
The following commands all understand the numerical prefix.  For
instance, `3 b' means "view the third MIME part".
`b' or `K v'     View the MIME part.
`K o'     Save the MIME part.
`K c'     Copy the MIME part.
`K e'     View the MIME part externally.
`K i'     View the MIME part internally.
`K |'     Pipe the MIME part to an external command.

To archive a group: Rename it with G r to some archive name then create a 
   new group with the old name.

* Scoring:
---------
To Lower: Last where a=From s=substring t=temporary p=permanent
To Raise: Iast  Shortcuts: LA, IA, IS
To Raise Thread: I S  (Not quite sure what I T does)
To show Score file: V e
To show Score rules used on article: V t

6.3	     Getting mail: p 112
6.3.9:	     Expiring mail: p 124
11	     Index start: p 271


And my .gnus:  (very simple compared to most)
=======================================================================
;;-*-scheme-*-
;; GNUS Setup File

(setq gnus-select-method '(nntp "netnews.attbi.com"))

(setq gnus-secondary-select-methods
	'((nnimap "shore" 
		  (nnimap-address "pop.shore.net")
		  (nnimap-list-pattern '("INBOX"))
		  (nnimap-authinfo-file "~/.authinfo")
		  (nnimap-expunge-on-close ask))
	  (nntp "news.opera.no")))

(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods '(nnfolder ""))	
(add-to-list 'message-syntax-checks '(sender . disabled))

(setq nnimap-split-inbox '("INBOX"))
(setq nnimap-split-crosspost nil)	
(setq nnimap-split-rule
      '(
        ("Idledev" "^Subject:.*idle-dev")
        ("PythonCheckins" "^Subject:.*Python-checkins")
        ("Misc.OpenBSD" "misc@openbsd.org")
        ("RPM-List" "^\\(To\\|Cc\\):.*rpm-list")
	("DebianHurd" "^Resent.*debian-hurd@lists.debian.org")
	("HurdHelp" "^Sender.*help-hurd")
        ("DebianMentors" ".*debian[ -]mentors")
	("MailToRead" "^T[Oo]:.*[kK][bB][kK]@")
	("MailToRead" "^C[Cc]:.*[kK][bB][kK]@")
	("MailToRead" "^From:.*sourceforge.net")
	("MailToRead" "^Subject:.*Debian Weekly News")
	("MailToRead" "^To:.*gnus-tutorial")
        ("MailToRead" "^\\(To\\|Cc\\):.*office@ibyc")
	("KBK02" "From:.*Kurt B. Kaiser")       ;; mail from me, save it
	("MailToRead" "^From:.*[kK]aiser")      ;; try to get bcc from family
	("Spam" "")))

(setq gnus-use-cache 'passive)

(setq gnus-score-expiry-days 30)

(add-to-list 'mm-discouraged-alternatives "text/html")
(setq  gnus-inhibit-mime-unbuttonizing t)

(setq message-cite-function 'message-cite-original-without-signature)

(setq-default fill-column 70)

(setq-default message-default-headers "Gcc: nnimap+shore:KBK02")

(setq gnus-save-all-headers nil)
(setq gnus-default-article-saver 'gnus-summary-save-in-file)

;; The default:
(setq gnus-thread-sort-functions
  '(gnus-thread-sort-by-number gnus-thread-sort-by-date))

;; (setq debug-on-error t)
;; (setq imap-log t)

;; (setq gnus-novice-user nil)

(gnus-compile)

kbk@shore.net

Re: How to develop an automatic set up experience for gnus email.

[Don Saklad]

...Great !   Thank you Kurt B. Kaiser !


If you don't or can't ask around

a. what system commands give one some information about one's system?...

b. what system files would contain information about one's system?...

information needed for composing the dotfile correctly and to the best
advantage for gnus email ?...