[Pan-users] Re: Header colouring by score?

[Duncan]

"Mick Semb Wever" <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Sat, 19 Aug 2006 05:48:00
+0000:

> My header tab/pane no longer shows any colouring at all.
> I have authors and threads watched but no colour.
> Was working fine before I upgraded to the C++ pan.
> Any ideas? maybe i missed a configure option?

That implies you've never had it working on the new-pan, and that you
simply transferred the old score file over.

Unfortunately, the score file isn't as compatible between versions as
originally billed.  I just went thru this recently when I finally got
around to invoking scores (with an import of the old scorefile) in the new
pan.

Specifically, while the old score file interpretation tried to work with
both slrn's format and xnews' modifications, the new interpretation skews
far closer to slrn, with one adjustment taken from xnews.

More specifically still, while the old pan took regex expressions
everywhere, the new pan doesn't parse regex in the newsgroup field at all,
only literal plus the * wildcard.  Thus, if like me your newsgroup entries
almost all consisted of things like [^alt\.binaries\..*], the scores will
no longer apply, since save for the *, the new interpretation would be for
a group with the literal name ^alt\.binaries\.., and real newsgroups
simply don't match that literally! =8^)

I did file a bug on it, and Charles patiently explained that regex was no
longer valid in the newsgroups field.  However, the bonus was that he
pointed me at the two URLs below, describing the Score file format used by
slrn and xnews, and I was able to use that to DRASTICALLY simplify my
score file filters (I now have only six scores in two sections, according
to the pan event log, as opposed to nearing a hundred, b4), by combining
them as appropriate, at the same time I was editing them to remove the
newsgroup regexs.

BTW, the one xnews feature pan retained was case insensitivity.  Where
case sensitivity is desired, use = instead of : for the header regex match
in question. :) Additionally, AFAIK, pan doesn't support full header
filtering yet, only the common overview headers. :(

I now have scores working again, with the exception of a couple authors
that probably changed their address or something (I /know/ that's the case
with one of them), that I have yet to update their scores to match.

Here's the slrn score doc.  With the exception of case insensitivity (and
includes, which I've not tested, didn't need to after the simplification
=8^), this is pretty much what pan does now:

http://www.slrn.org/docs/score.txt

FWIW the xnews doc.  pan handles case sensitivity as it states, but does
NOT honor newsgroup line regex as xnews does:

http://xnews.remarqs.net/scoring.txt

Converting those newsgroup regex is a pain, but look at it as I did,
taking the opportunity to combine where you can, and simplifying your file
by reducing scores and sections as appropriate, and it's not all bad. =8^)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman