Article: 37102 of news.software.readers Xref: uchinews gnu.emacs.gnus:11647 news.software.readers:37102 Path: uchinews!cbgw2.lucent.com!netnews.worldnet.att.net!hunter.premier.net!news.mathworks.com!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!warwick!lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk!news From: Gareth Rees Newsgroups: news.software.readers,gnu.emacs.gnus Subject: GNKSA: Gnus 5.3 Date: 10 Oct 1996 14:05:31 +0100 Organization: Cambridge University Computer Lab Lines: 123 Sender: gdr11@stint.cl.cam.ac.uk Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: stint.cl.cam.ac.uk X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 This is an evaluation of the newsreader Gnus 5.3 according to Ron Newman's "Good Netkeeping Seal of Approval" (GNKSA). Gnus 5.3 (hereafter "Gnus") is a newreader written by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen in Emacs LISP for the GNU Emacs editor. It is distributed with GNU Emacs 19.34. A new version of Gnus ("Red Gnus") is in development. For more information, see the following references. * Gnus: * Good Netkeeping Seal of Approval: * Other GNKSA evaluations: * Questions about Gnus: Gnus fails the Good Netkeeping Seal of Approval on one rather minor count: * You can post an article with a "From" header containing a syntactically invalid e-mail address. Although Gnus does check the syntax of the "From" header, its checks are not robust enough. See note (1) for details. The full evaluation follows. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Item number in GNKSA document Sub-item passes test? | Item is required to pass the GNKSA? | Item passes? | | Description of item | | Notes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 Y Display all essential header info YES Y default is to display YES Y a) display author YES Y b) display subject YES Y c) display newsgroups list YES Y d) display Followup-To list YES Y e) display Reply-To if different from From YES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2 Y Provide standard commands YES Y clear YES Y separate YES Y a) post a new article YES Y b) post a followup article YES Y c) reply by email YES N use standard terminology YES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 Y Implement cross-posting YES Y allow user specification YES Y cross-post (not multi-post) YES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Y Change essential headers YES Y change headers while editing body YES Y change Subject YES Y allow at least 70 chars in subject YES Y change Newsgroups YES Y change Followup-To YES Y allow Followup-To: poster YES Y change Reply-To YES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 Y Correct Subject headers in followup/reply YES Y a) prepend "Re: " (exactly!) YES Y b) preserve entire Subject YES Y even subjects longer than 80 characters YES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Y Respect Followup-To YES Y use to initialize Newsgroups in followup YES Y recognize and act on Followup-To: poster YES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7 Y Followups contain References YES Y contains Message-ID of original YES Y never truncate individual Message-ID YES N contains three References of original YES N contains entire References of original YES N contains any message-id mentioned in body YES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8 Y Direct email reply to Reply-To YES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9 Y Quotation and attribution YES Y provide method YES Y set off by prepend YES Y attribution line YES Y identifies author YES N gives message-id YES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10 Y Subject is mandatory YES Y do not post empty Subject or "" YES Y allow change while editing body YES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11 Y Must provide valid From header NO Y syntactically valid NO (1) N belongs to the user NO ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12 Y Must provide cancel YES Y of own articles YES Y *not* of others YES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 13 N Respect line length, and post WYSIWYG YES N line breaks shown are present when posted YES N do *not* post paragraph without line breaks YES N warn if body has lines longer than 80 chars YES N external editor (if any) conforms N/A (2) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 14 N Prevent obvious errors NO N prevent posting empty article YES N prevent posting only quoted text NO ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Notes: (1) Gnus does check the syntax of the e-mail address, but the syntax checks are not particularly robust: Gnus checks for the userid, the @ sign, and at least one period after the @. Thus addresses like or will be accepted as valid. (2) Gnus uses the editing facilities of Emacs, so has no external editor. -- Gareth Rees