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From: ashwin@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: How to use the notes system - (nf)
Message-ID: <2712@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Sep-83 22:39:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.2712
Posted: Mon Sep  5 22:39:36 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Sep-83 02:53:48 EDT
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#N:uicsl:10800007:000:3694
uicsl!ashwin    Sep  5 15:44:00 1983

                        A NotesFiles Primer
                               or
 How To Do What You Want To Do Without Doing What You Don't Want To Do


all novices and partial novices note:  there's a LOT more you can do with
the notesfiles system than pick out the notes you want to read one by one,
and step thru them tediously...

you can set up the system to automatically go thru the list of notesfiles
that you usually read, and automatically position you at the new (unread)
notes and responses one by one (regardless of where they are positioned in
the index).  you can ensure that your notes and responses get posted at the
appropriate place.

here are some facts about notesfiles and autosequencers to get you started:

in your .cshrc (or .login) file, include a statement to define the
notesfiles you're interested in.  here is a sample from my .cshrc file:

setenv NFED     "emacs"
setenv NFSEQ    "ai,uiuc.ai,net.ai,ai.rus,lisp,net.lang.lisp,net.singles"

this sets up your default NotesFileEDitor to be emacs (use whatever you
like), and your default NotesFileSEQuence to be the list of notesfiles
you're interested in.  NFED is used when you want to write a new note or a
response to a note or to edit a note, and NFSEQ is the sequence of
notesfiles that the autosequencer will look at for you (of course, you can
look at any of these or any other notesfiles you want in the usual way too,
by using "notes xxx".

these are some of the basic commands you'll need to know:

to the shell, you can type "checknotes", which will tell you whether or not
there are any new notes in any of the notesfiles in NFSEQ.  "checknotes -v"
gives you the list of files in which there are new notes; "checknotes -q"
just says "there are new notes".  i use "checknotes -v" in my .login file.
since checknotes has to go thru all the notesfiles in NFSEQ, which may take
time on a loaded system, i check notes automatically only on the first login
of the day.  to do this, i use:
last ashwin | fgrep -c ashwin | fgrep -s 1 && checknotes -v
in my .login file.  you can use this to do anything only the first time you
login (remember to replace "ashwin" by your login name!)

to actually read the notes, use "autoseq" (which is conveniently aliased to
"a" by putting "alias a autoseq" in your .cshrc file).  this will go thru
each of the notesfiles in NFSEQ one by one, and set you up to read the notes
you haven't already read (the first time you use this, it thinks you haven't
read anything, so be patient and go thru all the notes real quick;
thereafter it's real handy).  while reading notes, the usual commands work.
some of the useful ones are:
j  jump to the next unread note or response
J  jump to the next unread base note
i  index page
q  quit updating the sequencer (goes to next notesfile)
Q  quit but don't update the sequencer
space  next page of note (if it's a long note), or next note
-  previous note or response
w  (if you're reading a note)  write a response to the note (using NFED)
   (if you're at the title page)  write a new note

basically, you'll be using j, q and w.  if you want a complete list of
commands, consult a manual.


another point:  it's nice to keep all the discussion about one topic in one
place, instead of having notes on all sorts of topics scattered all over the
place.  to put out a response to a note in the same place as the note itself
is, use a "w" (write) while reading the note or any of its previous responses.
to write a new note (which becomes the last note in the index list), use a "w"
while reading the index page.

have fun.  questions and suggestions welcome.

Ashwin Ram
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

...!uiucdcs!uicsl!ashwin