From: kpc@pluto.arc.nasa.gov (k p c)
Subject: gnus versions
Originator: kpc@zog.arc.nasa.gov
Reply-To: kpc@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center AI Research and Aero Branches;
	Sterling.
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 03:14:17 GMT

in hopes of clearing things up...

this is my understanding of what versions are available and the status
of each.  please make corrections if you know any.  i've sent this to
masanobu umeda already.

gnus in general		masanobu umeda

	thought by many to be the best of the 3 emacs newsreaders
	gnews, rnews, and gnus.  data structures and ui are a mixture.
	bad things: some behavior depends on summary buffer contents,
	while other behavior depends on lists; some marks and their
	behavior are hardcoded; the summary lines can't be changed too
	much; and the summary and article keymaps are different.  the
	"u" key has nice semantics but not those of most emacs
	packages, so in my version i rebind it to "'" and assign
	unmarking to "u".  can be made faster.  works with nntp and
	spools.  more or less compatible with vm, mh-e, and rmail.

	customizable and friendly.  medium effort required to set up
	initially but easy to debug afterwards.  no virtual newsgroups
	at present, but two topics packages have been written (one for
	hierarchy, one for arbitrary topics; i don't use them since
	i'd prefer simple (superset) virtual newsgroups).

3.14.1	current 	masanobu umeda

	works.  released.  basis for most other versions, including
	3.14.3.  minor bugs include windows after mailing and default
	distribution.  many bugs fixed by posted contributions.

	new features written for it include sortgnus (nice newsgroup
	sorter by frequency), gnus-user-tale, gnus-speedups, joe
	wells' patches, gnus-mark, gnus-hide, and other things.

3.14.3	beta.		masanobu umeda

	available in japan.  works.  compatible with 3.14.1 version
	(almost no hacking is necessary to get it to work with 3.14.1
	code, even data structure dependent code).  just released.
	will be basis for v19 (gnu emacs version 19) version.

	author says not to put it on non japanese ftp sites since it's
	not ready yet.  speed and other improvements over 3.14.1.
	does not include most contributed code but seems to work with
	that code.

gnus2 v0.33	alpha?		scott ballantyne

	only available to hackers.  requires nov and other c code.
	author says it's much faster than 3.14.1.  works with news
	overview database.  comes with a disclaimer that says that
	it's deliberately not made "plug and go".  i wasn't able to
	get it to work in a reasonable amount of time but some people
	apparently use it.  (including eff people?).

	mostly incompatible with 3.14.1, eff, 3.14.3, and most
	packages.  best for unix, c, and elisp hackers who don't mind
	incompatible, possibly shaky code.  author seems to be most
	interested in speed.  no release date known.  although the
	promise of speed is alluring, i've decided not to use this
	version.  other versions of gnus are being worked on for speed too,
	and they are more standard.

3.1?.?	available in v19?	masanobu umeda

	gnu emacs version 19 version.  based on 3.14.3.  nomenclature
	changes.  release date known?  speed changes?  works?

eff	available at eff	???

	3.14.1 with joe wells' hacks and most of the packages written
	for 3.14.1.  works.  basically a replacement for 3.14.1 and
	some of the contributed hacks many people have collected.

gnus-kpc	unavailable	me

	since 1986 i have been working (usually only in rare spare
	moments) on ideas for a newsreader interface that incorporates
	machine learning and some other ui ideas.  a couple of these
	ideas are implemented on top of gnus 3.14.3 + eff + packages.
	it's not available, unfortunately, but i hope it will be
	sometime.  works.  few known bugs.  few users and hence
	idiosyncratic.  could use speed.  just wanted to let other
	ui/ai people know of its existence.  i'm not doing anything
	that requires data structure or gnus source changes (hence i'm
	not doing virtual newsgroups).

(some of the above is my opinion.  some of it might be incorrect.
there are no warranties or guarantees of any type whatsoever.  it is
void where prohibited.  you use it entirely at your own risk.)
-- 
i'm open to comparing research career notes with other cogsci/cogneuro people.
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.gnus