Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!vu-vlsi!dsinc!syd
From: syd@DSI.COM (Syd Weinstein)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: Save Tagged Mail _Fast_!
Keywords: calm
Message-ID: <1989Aug25.014846.16421@DSI.COM>
Date: 25 Aug 89 01:48:46 GMT
References: <1989Aug23.121938.2967@DRD.Com> <2969@mace.cc.purdue.edu> <1989Aug23.225206.538@DSI.COM> <214@fe2o3.UUCP>
Reply-To: syd@DSI.COM
Organization: Datacomp Systems, Inc.  Huntingdon Valley, PA
Lines: 53

rusty@fe2o3.UUCP (Rusty Haddock) writes:
>Actions like
>this, when taken by a program, can upset the program's users (knowledgable or
>not) and that's not one of the basic ideas behind the design of a user
>interface.

I think I should defend the original author of Elm in this case.
The error message you have received, and under discussion here,
is that Elm thinks that the editor did not even get started.

Its not that the editor left with a non zero status, although that
is what actually happens.

In the many years of Elm's evolution, this problem has not cropped
up until now, yet this code is unchanged for probably three years.

My point is, that Elm's original author thought that this message
was all the work that was necessary for a catastrophic error that
probably meant that something was drasticly misconfigured. (IE Unable
to start the editor at all).  It was never envisioned that the editor
would start and then appear to have an error.  In three years this
is the first discussion on this (I still don't know why vi has broken
all of a sudden, why not three years ago).

All I ask, as coordinator, is to take the tone down one level, and
to submit as a patch, to me, the change to do what you wish, make
it friendler.  Just remember to check for no editor, no processes,
cannot fork, out of disk space, editor returned spurious error, editor
actually did die, (Gee, its not so simple after all, is it? :-))

The problem is under consideration for a patch, we are suggesting
a work around for the interim.  Its just, that in anything as large
as Elm, nothing is just 4 or 5 lines of C code, there are many
side effects of even the slightest change.  (after all, the editor
just uses the standard subprocess interface).

I do welcome any patches, and I do read all the mail that comes in.
However, any mail with a patch gets higher priority than mail with
just a suggestion, after all, we are all volunteers here, no one gets
paid.  The list of bugs is very long, some esoteric, some major, and
many I would prioritize higher than this one, since the work around
on this one is so easy.

One of the reasons I have posponed the release of 2.3 is that people
have been too busy to work on 2.3 and have anything done worth releasing.
Its not that there are not things to do worth releasing, its that they
are not done due to peoples time constraints.  Thats why I say, all
volunteers welcome.
-- 
=====================================================================
Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP                   Elm Coordinator
Datacomp Systems, Inc.				Voice: (215) 947-9900
syd@DSI.COM or {bpa,vu-vlsi}!dsinc!syd	        FAX:   (215) 938-0235