nn "fix" for digests (was: Re: AG/Olympus - Time for your own Newsgroup?)

From: morrow@gandalf.rutgers.edu (John Morrow)

Date: Sun, 30 Jul 1995 00:00:00 +0000

Below is how to configure the "nn" newsreader so that it doesn't
automatically split digests.

skrenta@pbm.com (Rich Skrenta) writes:
>morrow@gandalf.rutgers.edu (John Morrow) writes:
>> Does this indicate a "broken" newsreader or is this what many people
>> see?

>It indicates a broken newsreader.

I investigated this (with Rich's help) and it indicates (in "nn",
anyway) a flag set to always break up digests automatically.  The
"fix" is to make sure you have the following line in your "~/.nn/init"
(or whatever the init file is called on your system) file:

set split off

This will turn off autosplitting.  Alternately, you can run "nn" with
the "-d" flag.  According to the man pages, the "split" flag is set
"true" or "on" by default.  You need to set it to "false" or "off"
explicitly in the init file.

>I'm not calling any Web browsers broken.  I will, however, call "broken"
>mail readers that start trying to uudecode mail attachments whenever they
>see "begin" at the beginning of a line.

I simply disagree with your application of the term "broken" to a
behavior that might be considered beneficial in many cases.  The
problem is that a lot of people (myself included until just now)
probably aren't aware that certain readers (such as "nn) perform this
splitting by default (and I *have* read the man pages before).  BTW,
the "G" option should still allow you to split up the messages if you
want.

>I suppose the digestifier software could quote the headers in the body.
>It would be better if we found the broken newsreaders and fixed them,
>though.

The "fix" for "nn" appears above.  Perhaps some mail to the author
about changing the default behavior?

John Morrow

References

Re: AG/Olympus - Time for your own Newsgroup?
morrow@gandalf.rutgers.edu (John Morrow)
Sun, 30 Jul 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: AG/Olympus - Time for your own Newsgroup?
skrenta@pbm.com (Rich Skrenta)
Sun, 30 Jul 1995 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Re: AG/Olympus - Time for your own Newsgroup?
morrow@gandalf.rutgers.edu (John Morrow)
Sun, 30 Jul 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: AG/Olympus - Time for your own Newsgroup?
skrenta@pbm.com (Rich Skrenta)
Sun, 30 Jul 1995 00:00:00 +0000