Re: [Pan-users] Sending attachments

[Camaleón]

On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 01:56:51 +0000, Duncan wrote:

> Camaleón posted on Fri, 16 Oct 2015 14:33:47 +0000 as excerpted:

(...)

>>> which was designed as a much more efficient encoder of binary files
>> 
>> (...)
>> 
>> And some problems, too:
>> 
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YEnc
> 
> Indeed.  But it works very well for news attachments and is /much/ more
> efficient than the usual encoding formats, and pan is a news client,
> so... it's an encoding appropriate to what pan does. =:^)

Yes, I usually forget that I'm using a newsreader instead an e-mail 
client but NNTP workflow works so well for me when dealing with mailing 
lists... I can understand yenc was designed with a different purpose in 
mind and hey, it's 14 years old.

>> People complained about the file was corrupted so I guess this is not
>> the case.
> 
> I'd put money on it actually being uncorrupted a good 90% of the time or
> more, but as they aren't using a yenc-compatible client, it'll LOOK
> corrupted.  

(...)

Sure, as I wrote the attachment was retrieved with no problems from Pan 
but this is of no help when it comes posting to a mailing list and not a 
newsgroup; people in there are using standar MUA clients for reading e-
mails and get attachments and embedded files need to land into the 
mailing list archive in a readable way.

>> In fact I was/am using Mutt to send those attachments (which adds an
>> extra work from my part) but always wondered what was the [+] icon
>> showing in the Pan's toolbar :-)
> 
> OK, so you were already doing the "via mail directly, instead of via
> news and gmane" thing, but were doing it manually, instead of letting
> pan launch the mail client compose window for you. =:^)

I tried that way once or twice but I can't remember why I left. Maybe 
because I needed to manually write the mailing list e-mail address in Pan 
or something like that. Instead, I use Mutt's address book to fill the 
mailing list e-mail.

>> replace the "To", add the Gmane newsgroup and remove the original
>> author which is a "no-no" on Debian mailing lists (unless someone
>> states otherwise). Also, I need to add the attachment which is indeed
>> very time consuming.
> 
> If removing the original author isn't desired, don't.  Simply add a
> second email address -- the one for the list, comma and space delimited,
> IIRC.  No problem. =:^)

Nope, that's neither an option. Sending two e-mails (to list and user) is 
also forbidden at Debian mailing lists: only reply to the list, that's 
all. Using Pan alongside Mutt (or other e-mail client) simply adds more 
work from my side, that's why I ended up using only Mutt when I have to 
send an attachment to a mailing list.

Hint: Using Mutt (with a patch) and Thunderbird as default newsreaders 
are also another option but I prefer to keep things separate: MUA for 
standard/work/home e-mails and Pan for mailing list posts.

(...)

> And at least UUE type encoding... as long as the output is separated
> from the rest of the message, should work fine, because that's the way
> it was /
> designed/ to work, allowing a binary file to be text-encoded and thus
> sent as-text, all those decades ago when the Internet was very young.

Now you tell... I wonder how Mutt and Thunderbird handle attachments on 
their newsreader side. Maybe using YEnc? :-?

>>> Once your tests are working, /then/ send your first real manual
>>> attachment to the list. =:^)
>> 
>> I'm afraid I give up O:-)
> 
> Which is why I automated the process, with a nice, friendly GUI as
> provided by kdialog, using my pan-attach-kd script.

(...)

>> Anyway, have you thought about adding/embedding those utilities into
>> Pan?
> 
> Have you?  If you were to code up the patch allowing the user the choice
> of encoding type, I have little doubt it'd be accepted.
> 
> I'm not a dev, and thus can't do so myself (probably the reason you
> don't/
> can't as well).

(...)  

Okay :-)

I was suggesting opening a feature request bug on Pan and tell developers 
about your automated solution. Maybe they can add it somehow by direct 
code or by means of an addon or something. The current status of this 
feature in Pan (as I see now, not much useful) it simply forces users to 
search for a workaround or another newsreader options which is not good.

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón