Gnus (was: Re: Help setting up POP3 email (rmail))

[Emanuel Berg]

Robert Thorpe <rt@robertthorpeconsulting.com> writes:

> Regarding Gnus vs Rmail, what's the difference?
> Rmail uses multiple mbox files and Gnus use multiple
> mbox files by default. They're both the same if
> you're tinkering with mail using command line tools.

Gnus is a universe in itself - much like Emacs,
actually. It is a nexus for virtually all computer
communication that you can do! - an absolute wonder to
behold - one of the top 10 programs/systems ever
written (with Unix/C and Lisp/Emacs as tied #1).

I quick look at the Gnus manual isn't enough by far to
grasp the scope: "The length of these documents varies
from about 500 pages to about 550 pages, depending on
which version of the manual you choose." [1]

I'm right now using Gnus for RSS, Usenet (e.g.,
rec.bicycles.tech), mailing lists (thru Gmane), blogs
(ditto Gwene), mail (backend nnml), as well as
a Gnus-to-blog project I currently work
on: Blogomatic!

So far, I've not added any contents, only two test
articles, but they work great - with zero metadata,
and with HTML that validates perfectly, the files even
sensibly indented and everything SEO'd with the
category and title showing up lowercased in the URL.

To add an article, I simply mail it to myself, then
nnml does splitting to the group blogomatic iff the
first subject word is - you guessed it - "blogomatic".
Then I can use Gnus' sorting, searching, editing, and
so on to access the material.

Here is the zsh that does mail -> HTML:

    http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/conf/.zsh/blogomatic

And here is the PHP - i.e., if executed, the blog:

    http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/blogomatic/index.php

There is just an endless list what you can do
with Gnus. For example, did you hear of:

    W r

        Do a Caesar rotate (rot13) on the article
        buffer (gnus-summary-caesar-message).
        Unreadable articles that tell you to read them
        with Caesar rotate or rot13. (Typically
        offensive jokes and such.)

        It’s commonly called “rot13” because each
        letter is rotated 13 positions in the
        alphabet, e.g., ‘B’ (letter #2) -> ‘O’ (letter
        #15). It is sometimes referred to as “Caesar
        rotate” because Caesar is rumored to have
        employed this form of, uh, somewhat
        weak encryption.

    W m
   
        Morse decode the article buffer
        (gnus-summary-morse-message).

?

Here is what I did with Gnus so far, save for
communicating:

    http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/conf/emacs-init/gnus/
    
[1] http://www.gnus.org/manual.html

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573