about 6 years back, i wrote a "textbase" program
that would accept a listserve digest dropped on it,
burst out the individual messages, format them,
and automatically place them in an electronic-book,
specialized for the handling of listserve messages.

this drag-n-drop simplicity, plus the transparent
formatting of the messages, combined with all the
capabilities it had, made this a pretty useful app.

users could edit, delete, copy, and print individual
messages, and even the simple act of reading them
was made much more comfortable by the program,
since each one came up at the top of its own page.
a find command was also included, of course, and
a table of contents consisting of subject headers
was automatically generated for user convenience.

the program was called "book-macway", because
it was hard-coded to handle list digests from the
"macway" listserve run by guy kawasaki at the time.

(this list then morphed into the "evangelist" list, 
which was killed when guy was axed from apple.
it's been reestablished now by someone else, but
it never really regained its punch once guy left.)

the object was to allow people to use the program
on their macway digests as a "free sample", then
charge them for a version that would work on any
listserve digest.  but the death of the evangelist list
threw a monkey-wrench in those plans...

i'm wondering whether there would be any interest in
a re-worked version of the program, so that it would
handle digests from this f.b. list (or any listserve)...

if anyone would like to take a look at "book-macway",
let me know.

-bowerbird

p.s.  here's a post taken from one of the sample digests...

Quote of the Day 
Sat, 7 Dec 1996 11:29:57 -0500

"I know that most men, including those at ease with problems 
of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the 
simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would 
oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have 
delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly 
taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, 
into the fabric of their lives." 
--Tolstoy 

And may we Macintosh users never be accused of this ourselves! 

Guy