Re: [Pan-users] Pan group list not accessible?

[Duncan]

Izak van Langevelde posted on Mon, 04 Sep 2017 12:06:34 +0200 as
excerpted:

> I upgraded to pan 0.142, only to find it is useless because of an old
> bug (https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=669403).
> Is there any workaround available, or do I better switch to another
> usenet reader?

The workaround as listed in the bug is to build pan against gtk2, since 
the bug only triggers when pan is built against gtk3.

This would be one of the reasons the general recommendation has been to 
build pan against gtk2, not gtk3.  There was a recent pan-list discussion 
about whether the bugs behind that recommendation have been fixed.  
Apparently at least this one remains.

Meanwhile, there should be at least three other workarounds for the 
likely majority of pan users who get a binary pan package, if the binary-
package-maintainer has chosen to build against gtk3 instead of gtk2 and 
the user doesn't want to go to the trouble of installing all the deps and 
doing a manual build from sources against gtk2 themselves.

Pan has two display modes, paned and tabbed layout, and these three 
workarounds exploit pan's layout and hotkey flexibility in different ways.

1) Switch to tabbed layout, either permanently, or temporarily, in 
ordered to access the group list, then back to paned mode if desired once 
the intended group has been selected.

While this can be accomplished manually using the option in the menu 
under view > layout > tabbed layout (checked or unchecked), and once in 
tabbed view the tabs can be switched by clicking, once familiar with 
things, the user will very likely wish to use hotkeys to toggle tabbed 
mode and/or switch between tabs.  These hotkeys are listed beside the 
menu options they trigger, and are configurable if the defaults don't 
work well for you.  But since I've long since customized my own hotkeys I 
can't list the defaults.

2) It's worth noting that pan has group navigation apart from the usual 
group list.  While this workaround won't help with groups you aren't 
subscribed to yet so you'll need to use one of the other workarounds for 
that, once you've setup your subscribed groups, you can use the next 
group and/or next unread group options to navigate your subscribed group 
list, without direct use of the group list tab/pane.

The menu functions are under the go menu, next group, or next unread 
group, and again, hotkeys should be available and configurable.

3) For those like me, and apparently you, who prefer the paned layout, 
there's a third alternative as well.  =:^)  In paned layout, each of the 
panes, group, header, and body, can be independently shown/hidden.

While I have a pretty large desktop here (actually two big-screen TVs as 
monitors, a 48-inch/1.22m full-HD 1920x1080, and a 65-inch/1.65m 4K 
3840x2160) and don't tend to need more display room in text groups, on 
image groups if maximizing the pan window on the 4K doesn't give me 
enough display room with all three panes shown, I'll temporarily toggle 
off the immediately unnecessary panes and only show the body pane in 
ordered to better view the images.

You could do similar, temporarily toggling off all but the group pane if 
necessary to select a group, then toggling back on the header and body 
panes.

The pane toggling menu options are again under view > layout > view group/
header/body pane, and again, hotkeys should be available and configurable 
as necessary.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman