--- Suggestion about digests / Eugenio Gatto. - Torino, 1996-07-17
 
"2) ... a digest every 500 lines ... a number of people who would prefer
the one-digest-per-day option ... an individual subscriber could tailor
his/her digest options?" [A Dickey, LSTOWN-L, 1996-07-17]
 
If the subscribers to my list are a valid sample, I doubt they would be
able to control a parameter with complex syntax (otherwise they would
stay NOMAIL and send simple LDBASE jobs at their leisure). In any case
digesting, as we know it, is a global function for a list, while
different options would mean different cumulations in parallel ...
probably a game not worth the candle.
 
If you have the freedom to define a new list, companion to the
"conversation" one, you could define for it daily digests (no MAXSIZE
option, here; no need for notebooks, if you keep them, since they are
associated to the main list), and instruct those people to subscribe
there (with default-options DIGESTS). This "daily" list would receive
mail only from its subscription to the main list. A minor point would be
the REPLY-TO field: shouldn't the SENDER keyword make the trick, I see
no simple way to point it to the main list address (and so, an editor
should be asked to redirect occasional replies to the main list).
 
Of course, I am advocating an explicit form of parallel cumulation ...
but limited to two varieties of digests (indexes, why not), and in a
form perhaps clearer for subscribers. I miei saluti.
 
<-- Eugenio Gatto <[log in to unmask]>, <[log in to unmask]>