🚀 go-pugleaf

> first, I see what the mail message (or article) has for a path - then
> I try pathalias.  I also check whether the system is on Arpanet...  all
> by hand.
> It would be nice to have this done automatically - IF I could tell the
> mailer, "no, please don't send it that way - it bounced the last time."

You know, there's an elegant solution to this sort of problem, exemplified
by the way that Prolog resolves things.  What is needed is a user agent
that will first try what it thinks is a "best" path, and then, when that
fails, can be told "try again, with the next-best path".  This could be
repeated until a good path is found, which could then be made the "best"
path for the next time.

It might be a good idea if the "try again" command could accept a parameter,
which would be advise from the user about a path (fragment) to include (or
reject) in generating the next path.  This would be a simply way for a user
to select for/against a given site or link.

It's not clear that this should be heavily automated; it could easily end
up with a message bouncing around the net for years looking for a path.
You'd probably want to tell the user about each failure, and hold the
failed mail until told what to do with it.

Just a few thoughts; let me know what's wrong with them. (;-)

-- 
	John Chambers <{adelie,ima,maynard}!minya!{jc,root}> (617/484-6393)