Re: Newbie comments & queries
> No.1.
>
> In the /etc/profile file the line
>
> eval $(dircolors /etc/DIR_COLORS -b)
>
> gives an error because of the lack of the file
> DIR_COLORS. I have just put this in as
>
> eval $(dircolors -b) and it seems to go fine.
Ok... you could man dircolors to see what is supposed to be in
DIR_COLORS (I believe dircolors can be used to create DIR_COLORS
and then you're off to the races).
> No.2
>
> the etc/bashrc is equivalent to the debian etc/bash.bashrc
> (that is how I deduce that the HOWTO is not a debian
> original.
That's ok... bash is bash whether it's on debian or other.
It will behave pretty much the same, except maybe different
names for startup files, maybe different names for env variables.
Good observation on your part!
> No.3
>
> When you run bash to open a non-login shell the following
> files are run (sourced?)
>
> /etc/bash.bashrc
> /home/ian/.bashrc
> /etc/bash.bashrc .... yes, again, a second time.
>
> I'll look at that when I get a break, but it works fine in
> any case.
Ok. Hmm, I should try that too...
> Now, onto new fields, I am running emacs (emacs20
> sometimes but see no difference) and am working thru the
> tutorial (the other night awoke dreaming of linux and had
> to have a session at 3.00 am before I could get back to
> sleep! Am I alone here?).
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! We've assimilated you now! ...Ahem.
Seriously, the tutorial was a great way to learn emacs.
> I guess I was looking for something like that, because I
> cannot see with emacs how you can make things bold,
> italic, or anything else.
Hmm. Mostly we use text processors for plain text, and word
processors for dealing with fonts, italics, etc. I.e., if
we are writing a file that we know we want to have font
changes, we _start_ editing the file in the word processor.
However, there are filters (e.g., a2ps, enscript) that will
automatically change the font of some text files, based on
the file content. The idea is like the syntax colouring in
the editors: programs can be printed out with keywords in
bold, comments in italics, etc. But I get the impression
you want to write text and indicate your own underlines,
etc. I don't know (offhand) of a way to do that with
regular editors. You could use one of the roff programs -
but that's using markup, not video text attributes.
For underlines, there is the old trick of putting in a
character, then a backspace, than an underline. Not very
convenient, you have to type three characters for each
underline character you want, and I'm not sure if today's
printers (and print queues) will deal with the result
properly.
> Ok, somebody said that unix
> programmes are generally designed to do one thing only -
> well. Point taken, but this seems to mean that having
> typed the text in via an editor whether emacs, vi, joe,
> jed, or whatever, that you have somehow now to go over the
> text a second time to format it for the printer.
Well we use the right editor to start with. Text editors
are for programs that will be compiled or interpreted
(no funny formatting characters allowed). Word processors
are for stuff that you want to gussy up manually with
bold, underlines, etc.
> What
> with may I ask? Surely even linux users want to embolden
> and underline their missives. Am I in for a major
> learning curve with tex or can I go looking on the web for
> a linux word processor, or am I missing something other
> than a few iq points?
Look for StarOffice, or the KDE productivity software. I'm
sure there are others. There is also LyX, which is a
WYSIWYG interface for LaTeX source files. All
mathematicians use LaTeX (or LyX) - it's great for equations
and many journals require the submissions to be done in
LaTeX and they supply a style file.
As for email, plain text is fine.
> End of the month I should get the modem. There seems to
Don't forget, try to avoid getting a winmodem.
> be a wide choice of programmes available for connecting to
> an isp and for receiving and processing email. I assume
> that I will be getting nothing like Pegasus Mail, wonder
> which of the options I should be looking at for a reliable
You will need a Mail User Agent (aka mail client, aka mail
reader) and a MTA (Mail Transport Agent aka mail server)
and maybe some other stuff.
I use the MTA that comes by default on Debian: exim. I dial
up to my isp and download my email using the POP protocol
(other (probably better) choice is IMAP) and "fetchmail"
(fetchmail can handle IMAP protocol as well). When the mail
gets delivered to my account, it goes through the "procmail"
filter, where it is sorted into folders based on the mailing
list it comes from.
At home, I use mutt to read the mail. At work, I use
the vm (view mail) extension to emacs. I wanted to try
out the bbdb (insidious big brother data base) which
is another extension to emacs. bbdb will snarf the
contact info out of the emails as you receive them, and
put them into your bbdb. I haven't done much with the
info now that it's there. I'd have to read up on bbdb
some more. bbdb is like a big contact database, could
be handy for you.
> dialup account and an email programme capable of many
> things - I use it constantly, have mailing lists, bulging
> address books and emails going back 5-10 years on file.
> Any suggestions gratefully received. I wanted to have the
> modem on hand before I did anything.
emails going back 5 or 10 years... You'll want to be
aware that various mail programs store the mail
in different formats. I couldn't tell you about
the Windows formats, but in unix there are a few
formats all called by the same name "mbox format".
They are very similar, but if your mail reader understands
one format and your mbox is another format you'll think
you've lost some mail. Actually some mails will be
lumped in at the bottom of other messages, because the
mail reader doesn't recognise the beginning of a message.
One format recognises a new message when a line
starts with "From ". Another format requires a
blank line before the line that starts with "From ".
(Note that "From " is distinct from "From:".
It is because messages start with "From ", that many mailers
will insert an escape character before "From " in a mail
message. The escape character is often > but it can be
anything so that the From does not start from the beginning
of the line.
> If I might ask, how do you handle the huge volume of
> traffic on this list, there are hundreds of emails
> everytime that I connect. i have a filter set up that
> deletes all mail from this list except those with the
> subject line as used. I looked at usenet, but
> linux.debian.user does not mirror this list - right?
> (maybe i must think also of getting newsgroups on the
> linubox as well as email)
I keep all the mails I get. I think I'm going to have to
get some more disk space soon.
mutt helps me keep track of the mails even though there is
a lot. For instance, debian-user is too big, so I just
look for mail from certain people. I can choose to view
the mail sorted by date, thread, poster, or some other
choices. Once sorted by thread (ie, by subject, sort of)
then all the related mails are listed together, and even
sorted in terms of which message answers which other message.
Also mutt allows me to score the mail (add or subtract
points based on attributes of the message), and then sort
by score.
I can also display only the messages matching a certain
criterion, for instance all the messages from fables.
An example of the use of these features:
I display only messages from fables, then I move
the cursor to the latest message from you. Then I display
all the messages again, and the cursor is still highlighting
your message. Then I sort all messages by thread, and
I have all the messages in this thread in one place,
including the past messages, and any new messages that other
people might have posted.
If I had a faster net connection, I would probably throw
away a lot of email, and just search the web archives
when I need to do research. Given my slow connection,
I search my own mail archives first, then go to the net
if I have to.
For voluminous lists, I start a new folder each month,
and store only a month's worth in it. debian-users
gets about 5000-6000 messages per month. mutt starts
to slow down a bit at that volume, so I try not to let
folders grow larger than that. Also I zip up the older
folders to save some space. I usually zip them up and
unzip them manually. I haven't yet got around to finding
out if mutt can deal with zipped files directly.
Using emacs as a mail reader is interesting. Of course
you have access to all your emacs functions while reading:
search, etc. And vm offers "virtual folders", I haven't
tried messing with that very much yet but looks interesting.
--
bjb@achilles.net
Consider registering as a bone marrow donor
http://www.bloodservices.ca/english/ubmdr
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