Re: Gnus: How to simplify file attachments?

[Marius Hofert <marius.hofert@math.ethz.ch>]

Thanks for answering this, I highly appreciate it and look forward to an update. 

Since I typically attach several documents, I currently switch to dired mode, mark the attachments and add them to the current mail (via C-c C-m C-a). 

I really like many features of Gnus, but given the ease of use of modern mail programs, I admit that especially attaching documents is far too slow in Gnus. In Mac Mail for example, I can simply drag-and-drop documents to a mail to attach them -- I don't have to switch buffers, navigate to a folder via the minibuffer, hit C-C C-m C-a... If there was a drag-and-drop feature, that would be very nice. Just a thought. It would also be fantastic to have such a feature for saving attachments (just drag them out of the mail buffer to somewhere). 

A second (not related to this thread anymore but to the use of Gnus as a mail program) thought is the following. I typically have one window open all the time, running Gnus and checking mails every minute. Assume you have another buffer open where you type text. Then, every minute, the minibuffer shows "Checking new news...done" and when this is displayed, I can't input text anymore. I first have to hit C-g before continuing as normal. Not sure if it is possible to make Gnus more work in the background not interfering with work done in other buffers, but that would also be good. But I guess this is only a Mac problem since under Linux one could run several emacs instances independently (and therefore Gnus in a different emacs) [is that true? I don't have a linux box to test that].

Cheers,

Marius


On 2012-01-04, at 20:52 , Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen wrote:

> Marius Hofert <marius.hofert@math.ethz.ch> writes:
> 
>> I use C-c C-a to attach files (e.g., a pdf file) in Gnus v5.13. I am then asked:
>> 1) "Content type (default application/pdf):"
>> 2) "One line description:"
>> 3) "Disposition (default attachment):"
>> ... so quite a lot of questions.
> 
> Yeah, that's three questions too many.  I think Message should just
> guess at 1) and 3), and then the user can change it if the user wants
> to.
> 
> 2) should just be removed.
> 
> However, Emacs 24 is in a feature freeze, so that'll have to wait until
> the next development cycle.
> 
> -- 
> (domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
>  bloggy blog http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no/

ETH Zurich
Dr. Marius Hofert
RiskLab, Department of Mathematics
HG E 65.2
Rämistrasse 101
8092 Zurich
Switzerland

Phone +41 44 632 2423
marius.hofert@math.ethz.ch
http://www.math.ethz.ch/~hofertj