Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!van-bc!sl
From: sl@van-bc.UUCP (Stuart Lynne)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: Suggestion for next Elm release
Keywords: finger elm
Message-ID: <298@van-bc.UUCP>
Date: 22 Sep 89 21:36:08 GMT
References: <291@van-bc.UUCP> <1060@pcsbst.UUCP> <1063@pcsbst.UUCP>
Reply-To: sl@van-bc.UUCP (Stuart Lynne)
Organization: Wimsey Associates
Lines: 45

In article <1063@pcsbst.UUCP> mike@cochise writes:
>next try:
>
> ->Specifically, the fI)nger command would attempt to do a finger(1) on the
> ->sender of the current message. Or perhaps a menu:
> ->	
> ->	finger: C(urrent, E(nter
>
>Not a bad idea. But how would you deal with multiple machines in
>one office/company/organization? IMO, (note the lack of _H_ 8-)

Note I suggested use of finger(1). What I want is about a dozen lines of
code that do a system call to finger(1) with the address of the person who
sent the currently selected message.

If my system doesn't have finger it will fail. If my system can't parse the
address it will fail. If the address given is hiding behind another site it
will fail. 

On the other hand if I have a valid address that finger(1) can grok I might
just get some interesting information.

Other people have suggested use of !finger .... . I agree that this works
fine. It's just that re-typing information into a computer that already has
it is kind of silly. And prone to error (especially mail addresses). The
computer is supposed to be a labour saving device - right?

The best suggestion is to add some sort of macro language support to the "!"
facility, so that finger(1) or any other command can be called with
interesting tidbit's of information about the current message. For example
today I wished that not only could I call finger(1) but pathto(1). With the
-v option to see how smail 3 would attempt to deliver a problem address. Had
to switch to another screen and go back and forth a few times to make sure
that the 40 character address was entered correctly.

    pathto -v info%ndsuvm1.bitnet@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca

    info%ndsuvm1.bitnet@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca: ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca matched by inet_hosts:
	routed info%ndsuvm1.bitnet@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca --> info%ndsuvm1.bitnet at ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca
    ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca!ndsuvm1.bitnet!info

Anyhow, it's been fun.

-- 
Stuart.Lynne@wimsey.bc.ca uunet!van-bc!sl 604-937-7532(voice) 604-939-4768(fax)