Bob Blick wrote:

> Perhaps only the people who get the piclist in digest form know this, but
> there's no way to apply filters to the digest, so EVERYTHING gets in. 
> 
> If there is a way to do this that doesn't involve something on the
> user's computer, it would be great. 

(Pretty much) everything can be done, somehow... :)

But maybe a question and a suggestion that go off on a tangent: What are
the reasons today to still use the digest?

A few attempts at answers:

- Less bandwidth. 
I don't think that this is an issue anymore. The occasional web browsing
most probably do takes up much more, I guess.

- Having the messages in one big chunk, which avoids being disturbed during
the day by dozens or hundreds of messages popping in and making the email
client say "pling" every time.
This can be solved by either reading the piclist through gmane.org (a
mail-to-news gateway that carries the piclist as a newsgroup) or by getting
e.g. a gmail account for the piclist and configuring your email program to
access it once a day.

AFAICS, either of this gets you everything the digest gives you, plus:
- topic filtering
- easier answering (no copy-and-paste anymore, use the standard reply
features of your newsreader or email program)
- helping people who read discussions in a threaded view by keeping the
replies properly threaded (the message context is lost when replying to a
message in a digest)
- allowing you to read the messages in a threaded view and to see them in
context.

I can't think of anything the digest could give you that one of the other
(free, and just as convenient) means wouldn't give you.

(I'm not trying to criticize anybody's personal preference, but just trying
to bring up some thought about alternatives. And maybe making it
unnecessary to implement topic filtering for digests...)

Gerhard
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist