Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!umcp-cs!aplcen!jhunix!ins_akaa From: ins_akaa@jhunix.UUCP (Ken Arromdee) Newsgroups: net.news Subject: Re: spell(1) as a pre-posting safety va (lve eaten) Message-ID: <1639@jhunix.UUCP> Date: Wed, 29-Jan-86 11:30:24 EST Article-I.D.: jhunix.1639 Posted: Wed Jan 29 11:30:24 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 1-Feb-86 00:57:51 EST References: <1048@lsuc.UUCP> <1300032@ccvaxa> Reply-To: ins_akaa@jhunix.UUCP (Ken Arromdee) Distribution: net Organization: TARDIS Repairs, Inc. Lines: 86 >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. Right now I use rn, which calls Pnews, which calls $EDITOR. This suggestion is _already_implemented_. >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. "f"=forward without including "F"=forward with including. It IS already a different command, at least in rn. As for making documentation hard to find, isn't that contrary to the purpose of documentation? Also, I doubt concealing the documentation would work, since one way novices gain information is by asking a more experienced user who, presumably, would know the answer. If you meant to just call the editor and require the user to manually include the appropriate /usr/spool/news/*/* file... well, I don't support the idea of making something difficult to do for legitimate users just because novices can make mistakes. >2. On write/exit you go through spell (unless the environment variable > $NOSPELL is set). (If going to *.sources, run lint.) I think enough has been said about the inadequacies of spell used on articles. >3. After fixup via spell, optionally run through diction/style or > whatever (user settable in .newsrc or via environment). (The default > would be everything.) Why should the user have to set such defaults? I strongly suspect that most users won't want to do this. I have no qualms about giving the user the option to run diction/style easily, but why make such CPU- (and connect- time-consuming) behavior the default? >4. Show the user what the article will look like when posted and ask if they > want to go back into $EDITOR. Same problem here, except that here there isn't even a suggestion that an advanced user could bypass this with .newsrc or environment. >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. A) This won't stop any posting and B) I'm sick and tired of programs asking me if I really wanted to do something. (For instance, Pnews asks me if I really want to post an article [around the world][around the USA][throughout the local organization].) >6. Estimate how many people will see it, and ask again (except in soapbox > groups). Same here. We don't (at least I don't) need programs that go through a lot of annoying questions before working. Anyway, why would anyone decide not to post an article after being told how many people would see it? >Unfortunately, it would probably also cut down on interested postings from >people who don't want to wade through all the gibberish. Exactly. Discouraging postings from new users by discouraging all postings just doesn't seem to make sense, somehow. -- "We are going to give a little something, a few little years more, to socialism, because socialism is defunct. It dies all by iself. The bad thing is that socialism, being a victim of its... Did I say socialism?" -Fidel Castro Kenneth Arromdee BITNET: G46I4701 at JHUVM and INS_AKAA at JHUVMS CSNET: ins_akaa@jhunix.CSNET ARPA: ins_akaa%jhunix@hopkins.ARPA UUCP: ...allegra!hopkins!jhunix!ins_akaa -- "We are going to give a little something, a few little years more, to socialism, because socialism is defunct. It dies all by iself. The bad thing is that socialism, being a victim of its... Did I say socialism?" -Fidel Castro Kenneth Arromdee BITNET: G46I4701 at JHUVM and INS_AKAA at JHUVMS CSNET: ins_akaa@jhunix.CSNET ARPA: ins_akaa%jhunix@hopkins.ARPA UUCP: ...allegra!hopkins!jhunix!ins_akaa