[Mailman-Users] New user comments

[Jim Hebert]

[This post is intended to be humourous while also making a point. Please
take it with a smiley.]

On Thu, 15 Jun 2000, Derek Simkowiak wrote:

> 	Oh yeah, and remember to carry this script with you wherever you
> go, because it's not part of the standard MailMan installation...

If you know how to use your editor, here's something very short that you
don't have to "carry" with you from machine to machine:

After you have one list in your aliases file:

vim /etc/aliases
GV5kyGpV5j:s/oldname/newname/g
:wq

21 keystrokes plus the length of the 2 lists' names, once you're in the
editor. Plus 'vim ' on the command line is 25. (the path to your aliases
file, and that newline, is a break-even against part of cat whatever >>
/etc/aliases)

or
emacs /etc/aliases
M-> C-SPC C-u 6 (up arrow) C-w C-y C-y C-u 6 (up arrow) M-%oldname
newname
! C-x C-c y

18 not counting modifier keys plus the length of the 2 lists' names. Plus
'emacs ' on the command line is 24. More if you count modifier keys.

So, while the actual number depends on the temp file name, blah blah blah,
we're talking about, order of magnitude, 25 keystrokes saved by getting
this feature added, versus having to use previous entries in /etc/aliases
as templates for later ones.

So, you've posted probably approaching 10 thousand of keystrokes all told,
reading the replies, logging back in again, etc etc etc. And it'll be more
keystrokes to find out about, download, and install the latest version of
the software, if we assume that with no further discussion they add your
feature and relase a snapshot of the code, and we don't figure in the
amount of keystrokes you cost anyone else like the programmer who writes
this for you.

So at this point, your keystroke investment would then hypothetically pay
off for you after you've added about 400 lists to your mailman servers
with your new feature.

=)

jim