Re: Using KNode 0.7.2, Wondering What Else is Out There

__/ [ Karl Kleinpaste ] on Friday 31 March 2006 12:48 \__

I'm taking the example points and replying to them in the Gnus context.

Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
* Grip on 'motion granularity', e.g. mouse scrolling, which PageUp and
PageDn cannot achieve quite so well.

Either page up/down a screenful (well, a bufferful) at a time, or I
can scroll the article text a certain number of lines by typing "1 0
return" to scroll 10 lines. Positively routine and trivial.


I'm thinking about the number of keystrokes and the habits that are rather
application-specific (unless the desktop is GNU-centric). I have ma mouse as
adjacent as possibly to the keyboard, so reaching for the 'scroller' (wheel)
instead is also tempting. It's also less jumpy and more tractable than large
discrete jumps, in my honest opinion.


* Highlighting of text that exceeds a screen-full.

Lacking context, this doesn't mean much; perhaps you should elucidate.
But the fact that there's more-than-a-screenful worth of text can be
seen from the modeline saying "Top" (rather than "All").


In KNode, for instance, I sometime want to copy a large proportion of the
text, yet not all (e.g. exclude .sig). Moreover, there is a nice box drawing
'toy', which requires highlighting of the text to bound:

,----[ ]
| Like this
`----


* Breakdown into multiple windows, possibly assigning each to a separate
virtual desktop

Please take a look at:

http://www.charcoal.com/~karl/gnus/screenshots/2006_30_31_061327_terminal.png
http://www.charcoal.com/~karl/gnus/screenshots/2006_30_31_061327_window.png


This looks like a very convenient working environment. Personally, I moved
from a single-screen layout with horizontal and vertical panes to just 3
vertical parts on the two screens I have. Desktop 8 handles this. It
contains all headers and about 50 messages and newsgroups are in sight.


Those are screenshots taken a couple minutes ago of XEmacs, within
which Gnus is displaying your article. The first is XEmacs inside a
terminal, the 2nd is XEmacs as a native window.

Gnus provides multiple windows ("buffers"), full buffer arrangement
configuration, per-buffer labeling (in the modeline), newsgroup tree
display, article thread display (2 ways, both in summary and the tree
buffer), textual emphasis using the bold/revvideo capabilities of even
the blandest of terminals (and fully color- and font-capable as a
native window), scoring -- note that Blinky's preceding article is in
listed in bold because it scored up, which in turn is because my
scorefile caught his reference to Gnus by my Keywords rule -- and a
thousand other functions that aren't noticeable in a static screenshot.

On point to your fundamental question, what I find so nice about Gnus
is that it will play either as a native windowed application *or*
inside a terminal with equal ease. Gnus is quite button-click happy
as a windowed application, but is still completely drivable via its
keymaps either as a window or inside a terminal. (And in fact I drive
it mostly with the keyboard even as a windowed application.)

You will find it rather hard to convince me otherwise.

Only because you've decided what the facts are, rather than learning
what the facts are. That is not a wise course.

I have more to say, but I swear I gotta run! I realised I'm late for a
meeting...

Many thanks,

Roy

--
Roy S. Schestowitz | Useless fact: ~70% of organisms are bacteria
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