Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!agate!ig!uwmcsd1!dogie!uwvax!umn-d-ub!umn-cs!davidli
From: davidli@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu (Dave Meile)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: digesting info-vax
Message-ID: <5724@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu>
Date: 5 Jun 88 04:09:03 GMT
References: <8804201644.AA17997@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu> <2071@uoregon.uoregon.edu> <362@mipseast.mips.COM> <2145@uoregon.uoregon.edu>
Reply-To: davidli@umn-cs.UUCP (Dave Meile)
Organization: Flying Taoist Graphics
Lines: 45

In article <2145@uoregon.uoregon.edu> dboyes@drizzle.UUCP (David Boyes) writes:
>30+ header lines -- it's silly to transmit all that stuff for every
>message, especially when it's the 40th repeat of the same answer.

You are, of course, assuming that EVERYONE has already (a) read the question
and (b) read the answer.  Considering the turnover at most businesses (let
alone universities), this is a ridiculous assumption.  You could, I suppose,
post the "20 most often asked questions and their answers" every month, but
there is still the off-hand chance that a new poster _hasn't_ read that
particular post this month.

>As far as not having a database or a undigestifying tool, that seems
>to me to point directly at some serious deficiencies in the available
>tools for mail handling, not a point against digesting.

Are you willing to write such a tool?  Are you willing to distribute such a
tool to every VAX site in the world that needs to "undigestify" your digest?
If so, then I'm all for setting things up in a digest.  If not, then don't
gripe about what "DEC should do".  AT&T certainly didn't create such tools --
users did.

(By the way -- you don't particularly _need_ to do it in mail ... a simple
TPU program which worked on an extracted mail file would be enough).  Now
go out and write one.  [Not me, though, since I prefer to read this newsgroup
in undigestified format via "NEWS"]

>multiplicity of different interfaces and tools to go about
>communicating electronically -- VMS has only VMS mail (so far as I
>know) and some expensive third-party products.

You should check out PMDF.  The address for getting it has been posted to
this newsgroup many times, so I don't really need to repost it.

>I'd like to propose an alternative: I'll set up a digest in parallel
>to this group and we'll see what works better, OK? Comments and
>suggestions are certainly welcome.
>David Boyes | Internet: dboyes@drizzle.cs.uoregon.edu   | (503) 686-4394
>            | BITNET: dboyes@uoregon 		        | 
>DECnet mail addresses -- just say no.

Actually, a better suggestion would be to install the VMS NEWS program, and
then you wouldn't have any particular problem, as you wouldn't have to read
mail echoed from the INFO-VAX mailing list.

-- Dave Meile