[Pan-users] Re: Rules (was: Tools menu in Pan 0.111)

[Duncan]

Charles Kerr <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Fri, 08 Sep 2006
10:46:15 -0500:

> The only uses of `Rules' that I've heard of with any frequency were
> (1) automatically delete some articles, and
> (2) automatically fetch (i.e., cache) other articles.
> 
> IMO a simpler interface for this would be checkboxes in
> Edit|Preferences|Behavior:
> 
>    [x] Automatically delete ignored articles
>    [x] Automatically fetch watched articles

     [x] Automatically mark read negative scored articles
 
> It sounds like you're wanting something similar to this for offline
> reading.  Does this sound like a good idea to you?

Yes, with the above third checkbox option added.

More to the point, it's likely that some would prefer to auto-fetch
anything with a positive score.  It's equally likely that some won't want
to delete any messages, only marking read "ignored" messages so they don't
have to be seen normally, but can be referred to if necessary to clarify
what a followup is referring to.  (That's what I use the negative but not
ignored zone for, but others may use it differently.)

It'd also be nice to have the preferences per group, as someone might want
to delete ignored messages (spam) in binary groups, but only mark them
read (idiots) in certain text groups where it's possible one might want to
refer back to the message later.  However, this then gets pretty close to
rules once again, and can be achieved by running separate pan sessions
(with correspondingly separate settings) for binary and text groups, as
I'm already doing.  I don't believe the added complexity both in UI and in
code therefore merits it.

Thus:

  Pan should do the following automatically:
    For Ignored articles:
      (*) Delete
      ( ) Mark read
      ( ) Nothing
    For articles scoring less than zero:
      ( ) Delete
      (*) Mark read
      ( ) Nothing
    For articles scored more than zero:
      ( ) Download
      (*) Nothing
    For watched articles:
      (*) Download
      ( ) Nothing

Note that the above is the suggested defaults as well, and that they are
now radio buttons, not checkboxes.  With this many choices, a new tab
might be appropriate, suggested title "Auto".

If desired, the options under Behavior, Groups could be here as well (with
a couple additional options):

    For groups:
      [x] Get new headers on startup
      [x] Get new headers when entering group
      [ ] Mark group read when leaving group
      [ ] Clear cache (message bodies) on shutdown
      [ ] Clear headers on shutdown
      [ ] Erase unsubscribed group activity at shutdown

Checkboxes here, but again suggested defaults are shown.  Checking the
last three boxes would in effect implement the "privacy" option that many
people pay good money for separate apps to handle, with IE and the like,
the last one leaving unsubscribed groups as if they'd never been touched. 

I could certainly use the last one here, when I go to a testing group
(like the startrek group mentioned as a good way to test pan's scaling,
earlier), when I'm just browsing groups I decide not to subscribe to, or
when I do on-request downloads for friends. Yeah, I can and do keep a
testing instance of pan for these cases, and go clean up the filesystem as
necessary when I'm done, but it'd be nice to have pan able to handle it
automatically.  For my testing instance, I'd have all three of those new
items checked, and I'd check the unsubscribed cleanup option on my text
and binary instances as well.

-- 
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