Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!usc!csun!kithrup!sef
From: sef@kithrup.com (Sean Eric Fagan)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: lots of trn problems
Message-ID: <1990Dec29.015540.3445@kithrup.COM>
Date: 29 Dec 90 01:55:40 GMT
Sender: sef@kithrup.COM (Sean Eric Fagan)
Organization: Kithrup Enterprises, Ltd.
Lines: 50

I finally had some time to play with the stuff at work.

The second posting was a lot easier, after I was told how to use it (i.e.,
unpack part 9, unpack the *second* part 9, unpack the second part 10, then
unpack parts 11-14).

One of the problems I mentioned, about trn dumping core, I finally found the
cause of.  It was the person who'd ported the NNTP library, and had not
quite realized what the term 'bounds checking' means (as a result, I ended
up with a return address of 'prin' 8-().

I'm still haggling with the mthreads stuff; seems it doesn't work too well
with nntp.  But, as I said, I'm playing with it, and am trying to come up
with an invocation that will work properly.

Meanwhile, at home, I haven't upgraded, because I haven't felt the need
(yet?).  It works fine at home (except for a couple of quirks I'll mention
below), and I'm very satisfied with it.  Actually, I'm addicted to it... 8-)

The quirks I mentioned above:  as I mentioned before, trn seems to go
through the threads backwards.  That is, the first article it deals with is
the last article in the group.  It seems to deal with articles within
threads properly, so this isn't a major problem, just a minor annoyance.
(For example, if there are four threads in comp.unix.internals, with 1, 3,
2, and 9 articles in each respective thread [in that order, as well], then
the only article in thread a appears to be the last article available in the
group.)  This seems to be happening with both the older version at home and
the newer version at work.  Again, it's just a minor annoyance.

The next problem is when I notice that I want to read an article again,
after I've left the group.  Say that I've only looked at the thread
selection menu, and didn't think there was anything I wanted to read.  So I
type 'q' (to get to the 'What next? [ynq]' prompt), and then 'c' (for
catchup), and 'y' (to confirm).  When I get to the next group, and decide I
really did want to read one of the articles in the previous group, it's
somewhat difficult finding the article.  If I just go to the last article,
and use 'P' to go through the articles, it does not go in a normal means.
(I think it's following the threads backwardsly.  This doesn't work very
well, though!)

Anyway, again, in case the author reads news (since I still have yet to get
a reply to any of my messages), I *do* like trn; I don't know how I lived
without it, now.  But it's not perfect, and it still had one of the worst
original distributions I've ever seen on c.s.u.

-- 
Sean Eric Fagan  | "I made the universe, but please don't blame me for it;
sef@kithrup.COM  |  I had a bellyache at the time."
-----------------+           -- The Turtle (Stephen King, _It_)
Any opinions expressed are my own, and generally unpopular with others.