Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-pcd!uoregon!dboyes
From: dboyes@uoregon.uoregon.edu (David Boyes)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: digesting info-vax
Message-ID: <2071@uoregon.uoregon.edu>
Date: 26 May 88 09:35:56 GMT
References: <8804201644.AA17997@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu>
Reply-To: dboyes@drizzle.UUCP (David Boyes)
Organization: University of Oregon, Computer Science, Eugene OR
Lines: 45

In article <8804201644.AA17997@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu> SYSRUTH@utorphys.BITNET writes:

>Can you explain to me how digesting is going to reduce the volume of
>info-vax?

Sure.

>Sure, you might get a smaller *number* of MAIL messages, but
>there will be just as many articles in them,

No. The point of digesting is to reduce the naieve, duplicate or just
plain wrong answers. Digesting a mailing list also makes putting the
information into a database a LOT easier, as digests are usually
edited into a standardized format and have most of the unnecessary
header lines and delivery information removed.

>and they'll be bundled up
>in such a way that VMS MAIL is agonising to get through them - you
>can't reread an individual article, you can't delete individual articles
>with a single keystroke, you can't save articles individually in some
>filing scheme that makes sense (in fact you can't do any of these things
>with rn, either).

Sounds to me more like a call for DEC to get on the stick and either
1) publish the format of mailbox files so we can write our own
interfaces to it, or 2) write a better mail program. So far, VMS mail
has come up short in comparison to most of the other mail programs
I've worked with in terms of usability and short learning curve. Who
in their right mind associates "extract" with copying a message to a
file? Both Rice MAIL for VM/CMS and elm/mush/etc ad nauseaum for Unix
boxes seem much more straightforward.

>As to your question "when is SOMEBODY going to digest info-vax" - I guess
>the answer is "when SOMEBODY VOLUNTEERS to do it"!


I hereby do so. Where do I apply?

>Ruth Milner
>University of Toronto Physics

-- 
David Boyes | Internet: dboyes@drizzle.cs.uoregon.edu   | (503) 686-4394
UO Systems  | BITNET: 556@OREGON1		        | 
"Reading is like living. The more of it you do, the more sense *everything*
 makes. It constantly amzes me that they pay me to *read*, of all things.."