[ale] requests for help

[Christopher Bergeron]

I think if we just come up with a general format using LETTERS and not
numbers that we all agree on it might not be difficult to implement.
something like:

[ale][X]
[ale][OT]
[ale][install]

etc...

I use a winclient (sorry) on several of my machines, and I'm not
willing to "only" use my linux machine(s) to be a part of ale.

The client is ultimately the one who dictates the message (no pun
intented) if I understand your proposal correctly...

-CB




Tuesday, October 1, 2002, 3:54:31 PM, you wrote:

M> I had an idea at lunch today that I've been tossing around in my head
M> for a bit, and seems fairly feasible to implement.  So I figured I'd
M> bring it up for discussion and see what everyone though.

M> There are a lot of emails sent back and forth on the list every day, but
M> if you get down the the marrow of it, there are some very obvious
M> groupings of subjects, such as distro installation help, X,
M> ipchains/tables, coding, etc...  

M> So I was thinking of a catagorization code that could accompany each
M> email sent so as to segregate it out, and allow for a parser engine to
M> pickup the code and drop the contents of the email into a normalized
M> database for archiving and searching topics.  The basic layout could be
M> somthing like this:

M> [alf: GeneralSubjectID + SubSubjectID + TopicID + MessageID ]

M> (NOTE: alf == "ale list format", and I like Alf anyway)

M> So a simple explanation would be

M> 0001 Programming:   (GeneralSubject)
M> 1002 - Linux       (SubSubject)
M> 2342   - Network   (Topic)
M> 2347   - Graphics
M> 2001 - Unix
M> 3456   - Kernel
M> 3457   - Security
M> 9111 - Windows
M> 2342   - Graphics
M> 1337   - Sound


M> So lets say I had a question about Programming Graphics in both Unix and
M> Linux.  I could format the message like this

M> [alf:0001+1002|2001+2342+00000001]

M> Notice the "|" separating the two id's in the SubSubject field, this
M> allows you to cross link, so that you can catagorize somthing in
M> multiple categories.  

M> The hardest part about implementing somthing like this would be making
M> it easy to use, so I'm attempting (emphasis on ATTEMPT) to hack together
M> a simple C app for linux that uses the starndard X libs to get input via
M> select fields, so all you have to do is select your topics and it will
M> generate your inital sequence.  The second step would be to assign
M> everyone on the list a unique id for the last field in the sequence or
M> just use a large number and do random number generation.  

M> This is just a really rough inital idea, but I think it would be a
M> really good tool for archiving and crosslinking, maybe even somthing
M> that could be developed into a standard for mailing lists like this, I
M> dunno.  I'm also not sure if using numbers for the sequnce fields is the
M> best idea either, maybe somthing like the GeekCode format.  

M> Let me know what you think.  :)

M> -- mike


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