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From: wombat@ccvaxa.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: spell(1) as a pre-posting safety va
Message-ID: <1300032@ccvaxa>
Date: Sun, 26-Jan-86 19:06:00 EST
Article-I.D.: ccvaxa.1300032
Posted: Sun Jan 26 19:06:00 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 28-Jan-86 06:00:18 EST
References: <1048@lsuc.UUCP>
Lines: 31
Nf-ID: #R:lsuc.UUCP:1048:ccvaxa:1300032:000:1469
Nf-From: ccvaxa.UUCP!wombat    Jan 26 18:06:00 1986


If you had to go through enough (easy!, automatic!) steps to get something
posted, it might cut down on postings consisting of a quoted article
followed by vain attempts to get out of mail using vi/ex/ed commands.

1. To followup to a posting you are first thrown into $EDITOR.
1a. To get the text of what you're replying to included you have to type a
	different command, documentation of which is hard for novices to
	find.
2. On write/exit you go through spell (unless the environment variable
	$NOSPELL is set). (If going to *.sources, run lint.)
3. After fixup via spell, optionally run through diction/style or
	whatever (user settable in .newsrc or via environment). (The default
	would be everything.)
4. Show the user what the article will look like when posted and ask if they
	want to go back into $EDITOR.
5. Calculate how much it will cost to send the article everywhere and inform
	the user. Ask if they still want to post the article.
6. Estimate how many people will see it, and ask again (except in soapbox
	groups).

Unfortunately, it would probably also cut down on interested postings from
people who don't want to wade through all the gibberish. I think forcing use
of an editor would help some, though. Emacs users could easily run spell,
and I assume it's not that difficult for vi.

"When you are about to die, a wombat is better than no company at all."
				Roger Zelazny, *Doorways in the Sand*

						Wombat
					ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!wombat