[Pan-users] Re: prevent Pan from fetching active list

[Duncan]

Brian Sammon posted <address@hidden>, excerpted below,  on
Fri, 30 Jan 2004 15:39:23 -0500:

> When I use pan for the first time (for NNTP) it wants to pop up a window
> saying
>   We don't have a list of groups for "server"   Shall we download one?
> and then spend 15 minutes(over dialup) downloading the huge list of
> groups.
> 
> Since I'm on dialup currently, I'd like to avoid this step.  From my
> reading of NNTP specs, this isn't really necessary, because:
>   1) I know which groups I want to read 
>   2) Most servers support the "LIST ACTIVE" command to find newsgroups
>   if I can't remember the exact name.
> 
> Is there anyone working on adding this option (to not download the full
> list) to Pan?

> Alternatively, does anyone have any hacks to prevent Pan from doing
> this? Maybe a little script that I can run to generate the groups list
> (perhaps from a .newsrc file) instead of downloading it?

I was JUST going to mention putting it in a .newsrc, and then importing
THAT into PAN.  Then I see you already mentioned the .newsrc part, but
apparently weren't aware of the import possibility.

Well, you are now!  =:^)  Say no, you don't want to d/l, to get rid of the
dialog, then go to Tools/News Servers,  In the resulting dialog, either
create a new server or open one that's there, and find the .newsrc option
at the bottom of the resulting news server config dialog.  There's even a
place to specify file name and a browse button, so you can use multiple
.newsrcs, one for each of multiple servers!

If you wish to, after having let pan grab its server config from that, you
can turn the option off, and let PAN track its own servers.  Then, if you
wish to export PAN's tracking again, turn it back on, creating a new
.newsrc, so you can import it into the next program.

Of course, here, I have a 3Mbps downstream cable modem connection =:^),
and haven't used any other news programs for some time, since I settled on
PAN as my regular news (and mailing list, like this one, thru gmane.org's
list2news gateway) client, I've not personally used the option, but I
understand many PAN users make regular use of it.

So.. no hacks necessary!  =:^)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." --
Benjamin Franklin