Internet Surfer 2.0/Internet Surfer 2.0 (Wayzata Technology) (1996).iso/pc/text/mac/faqs.545

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS);faqs.545



A second, more versatile interface, "rn", was developed by Larry Wall
(the author of Perl) and released in 1984.  This interface also uses
full-screen display with direct positioning, but it includes many
other useful features and is very popular with many regular net
readers.  The interface includes reading, discarding, and/or
processing of articles based on user-definable patterns, and the
ability of the user to develop customized macros for display and
keyboard interaction.  "rn" is currently at release 4.4.  It is being
maintained by Stan Barber of the Baylor College of Medicine.  "rn" is
not provided with the standard news software release, but is very
widely available because of its popularity.  The software can be
obtained from its official archive site, lib.tmc.edu, using FTP, and
via mail from [e-mail]

A variant of "rn" is "trn" by Wayne Davison. Trn adds the ability to
follow "threads of discussions" in newsgroups; its latest version 2.2
is based on rn 4.4. It uses a Reference-line database to allow the
user to take advantage of the "discussion tree" formed by an article
and its replies.  This results in a true reply-ordered reading of the
articles, complete with a small ascii representation of the current
article's position in the discussion tree. Trn can be obtained from
ftp.coe.montana.edu in the /pub/trn directory, from uunet in the
news subdirectory, and from many other archive servers world-wide.

xrn is an X11-based interface to NNTP that was written by Rick
Spickelmier and Ellen Sentovich (UC Berkeley).  The current version is
6.17.  xrn supports many features, including sorting by subject,
user-settable key bindings, graceful handling of NNTP server crashes,
and many of the features of rn (including KILL files and key bindings
similar to rn).  xrn is actively supported by the authors with bug
fixing and feature addition support from many of the users.  xrn can
be retrieved from most of the popular FTP sites (gatekeeper.dec.com,
ftp.uu.net, export.lcs.mit.edu).

Another X11-based newsreader is xvnews.  This is a news reader
designed primarily for Sun workstations running OpenWindows.  It runs
with NNTP and is compatible with rn style commands. It is available
from export.lcs.mit.edu in the contrib directory.

There are two popular macro packages named "GNUS" and "Gnews" that can
be used with the GNU Emacs text editor.  These allow reading,
replying, and posting interaction with the news from inside the Emacs
text editor.  Client code exists to get the articles using NNTP rather
than from a local disk.  Copies can be found on most archive sites
that carry the GNU archives.

"nn" is yet another reader interface, developed by Kim F. Storm of
Texas Instruments A/S, Denmark, and released in 1989.  nn differs from
the traditional readnews and vnews by presenting a menu of article
subject and sender-name lines, allowing you to preselect articles to
read.  nn is also a very fast newsreader, as it keeps a database of
article headers on-line.  (I.e. it trades space for time.  A good rule
of thumb is that the nn database size is 5%-10% of your news spool.
So up to 110% of your news spool is the amount of space news and the
nn database will take.)  The current version of nn is 6.4.16.  nn can
be obtained via anonymous FTP from dkuug.dk, uop.uop.edu, or various
other sites; European sites should request the sources from their
nearest backbone site.

Yet another newsreader is the "tin" reader.  It operates with threads,
has different article organization methods, and is full-screen
oriented.  tin works on a local news spool or over an NNTP connection.
It has been posted to alt.sources, and further information is
available from Iain Lea ([e-mail]). The current
release of tin is 1.1 PL5.  Tin is based more on the Notes and tass
systems than "rn".  There is an extensive list of features, including
interfaces to batch modes and auto unpacking mechanisms.

In March 1986 a package was released implementing news transmission,
posting, and reading using the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
(as specified in RFC 977).  This protocol allows hosts to exchange
articles via TCP/IP connections rather than using the traditional
uucp.  It also permits users to read and post news (using a modified
version of "rn" or other user agents) from machines which cannot or
choose not to install the USENET news software.  Reading and posting
are done using TCP/IP messages to a server host which does run the
USENET software.  Sites which have many workstations like the Sun and
Apollo products find this a convenient way to allow workstation users
to read news without having to store articles on each system.  Many of
the Usenet hosts that are also on the Internet exchange news articles
using NNTP because the load impact of NNTP is much lower than uucp
(and NNTP ensures much faster propagation).

NNTP grew out of independent work in 1984-1985 by Brian Kantor at U.
C.  San Diego and Phil Lapsley at U. C. Berkeley.  It is now in
release 1.5.11 dated 11 february 1991, with the next planned release
at 1.6.  NNTP includes support for System V UNIX with Excelan Ethernet
cards and DECNET under Ultrix.  NNTP was developed at U. C. Berkeley
by Phil Lapsley with help from Erik Fair, Steven Grady, and Mike
Meyer, among others.  The NNTP package is distributed on the 4.3BSD
release tape (although that is version 1.2a and out-of-date) and is
also available from the various authors, many major hosts, and by
anonymous FTP from lib.tmc.edu, mthvax.cs.miami.edu and ftp.uu.net.

Reader NNTP clients for VMS are also available, including VMS/VNEWS
(current release 1.4) and an upcoming reader only version of ANU-NEWS.
VMS/VNEWS is available via anonymous ftp from arizona.edu (contact
[e-mail] for more information) or at any site which archives
vmsnet.source.  Although the current release of ANU-NEWS is usable as
a reader it can be difficult when used with a UNIX server.

An NNTP newsreader for Macintoshs is available called HyperNews.  It
is implemented as a HyperCard stack and depends on MacTCP.  It is
available from many Mac archives, including ftp.apple.com and
sumex-aim.stanford.edu

There is also an NNTP-based netnews reader for Symbolics Lisp Machines
(under Genera 7) available for anonymous FTP from ucbvax.berkeley.edu
[128.32.133.1] in pub/nntp-clients/lispm written by Ian Connolly
<[e-mail]> and maintained by Richard Welty
<[e-mail]>.  In addition, another NNTP-based news
browser is available running under Genera 7 and Genera 8.  It provides
mouse driven hierarchic browsing of newsgroups and articles, with
support for X11 servers on remote machines.  It is available for
anonymous FTP on flash.bellcore.com [128.96.32.20] in the directory
pub/lispm/news-reader/.  It is written and maintained by Peter
Clitherow <[e-mail]>

A TOPS-20 reader was developed by Dave Edwards of SRI
<[e-mail]>, but current availability is unknown.  An NNTP reader
suite for PC's running MS-DOS and having Excelan boards is available
for ftp from ames.arc.nasa.gov; get the pcrrn files.  There are two
MS-DOS news readers that can be obtained from bcm.tmc.edu in the "nfs"
directory.  They both require PC-NFS (from Sun) to work.  They will
both work under PC/TCP from FTP Software early this year.  Source will
be provided at that time.

"trumpet" is a NNTP based news reader for DOS which will also run
under Windows (although only as a DOS application). There is Lan
Workplace version which is also available.  It works using the
Clarkson Packet Drivers either over a Novell network or a PC with an
'ordinary' TCP/IP connection. It offers a very intuitive interface
with most of the basic facilities required in a newsreader (but
without some of the 'bells and whistles found in something like rn).
It has facilities for using SMTP to forward/reply etc.  The latest
version is 1.05g and is shareware available at most main ftp sites.

At least one IBM VM/SP (CMS) version of the Usenet software is
available.  It is known as PSU NetNews, and it is maintained by Linda
Littleton ([e-mail]/psuvm.psu.edu).  Version 2.4 of the
software is available from LISTSERV@PSUVM.  PSU NetNews supports only
3270 terminals, and uses XEDIT as its screen driver.  Most major VM
sites appear to use this package.  NetNews supports locally-stored
news, not NNTP reading.

There is NNTP support for PSU NetNews for bulk news receipt: NNTPXFER
will poll another site for news, and NNTPRCVR will receive news sent
from a Unix NNTPXMIT process.  Either program sends the news articles
to NetNews for processing.  Contact Andy Hooper ([e-mail]
or qucdn.queensu.ca) for more information, or obtain them from
listserv@qucdn in PUBLIC FILELIST.  These programs are provided with
source, and require IBM's FAL TCP/IP and Pascal.  An NNTPXMIT sender
that works in cooperation with PSU NETNEWS is available from Herman
Van Uytven ([e-mail]).

There is at least one NNTP news-reader for VM using XEDIT as its
screen manager: NNR.  Contact Paul Campbell ([e-mail]) for
information.  The program requires IBM's FAL TCP/IP.  The software is
available for anonymous ftp from rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de
[129.69.1.12] in the directory
soft/kommunikation/news/beginner/software/vm-cms/*.

An NNTP news reader is available for TSO/ISPF, called NNMVS. NNMVS is
written by Stephen Bacher <[e-mail]> at Draper
Laboratory.  It requires C/370 V1R2 (though V1R1 will work) and uses
TCP/IP sockets.  It is now available via anonymous ftp at
ftp.uni-stuttgart.de under the directory
/soft/kommunikation/news/beginner/software/nnmvs.  The current release
is Version 2 Release 3 Modification Level 1 (in pseudo-IBM parlance).


Special note on "notes" and old versions of news
------------------------------------------------
Users of these systems may note problems in their interactions with the
Usenet.  In particular, postings may be made by "notes" users to
moderated groups but they will not usually propagate throughout the
entire Usenet.  The same may happen to users of old B news software.

The "notes" software package uses a different internal organization of
articles, and a different interchange format than that of the standard
Usenet software.  It was inspired by the notesfiles available in the
PLATO system and was developed independently from the Usenet news.
Eventually, the "notes" network and Usenet were joined via gateways
doing (sometimes imperfect) protocol translation.  The interface for
"notes" is similar to "rn" but implements different features, many of
which are dictated by its internal organization.  "notes" was written
in 1980-1981 by Ray Essick and Rob Kolstad, (then) grad students at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  The first public
release of "notes" was at the January 1982 Usenix conference.  The
last release of notes was version 1.7; it is no longer being
actively maintained.

Users of "notes" or old B news software wishing to post to moderated
groups should either mail their submissions to the moderator, as
listed in the monthly posting of "List of Moderators" in the group
"news.lists", or else they should post from a system running
up-to-date news software (i.e., C news or INN).  "notes" users may
obtain some patches from the comp.sources.unix archives which enable
the most recent versions of "notes" to interact with moderated groups
properly.

Users of old B news and "notes" are also not able to take advantage of
some other current B news features, such as the "checkgroups" message.
"notes" continues to be a "foreign" system and B news versions are
considered "obsolete."  The various maintainers of the Usenet software
have never expressed any commitment to maintain backwards
compatibility with "foreign" or obsolete news systems and are unlikely
to do so; it is the responsibility of the users to maintain
compatibility of such software if they wish to continue to interact
with the Usenet.


Software versions & availability
--------------------------------
You can obtain the version number of your news software by issuing
some form of "v" command to show the current version -- consult the
man page for details.  Current software is obtainable from almost any
major Usenet site as well as the sites noted in the body of the
article, above.


The following sites probably have sources to the current news software
available for anyone needing a copy:

        Site        Contact
        ----        -------
        munnari        [e-mail]
        osu-cis        [e-mail]
        philabs        [e-mail]
        pyramid        [e-mail]
        rutgers        [e-mail]
        tektronix    [e-mail]
        watmath        [e-mail]

Sources for most of the news readers and software, including news
2.11, C News, "rn", and "trn" are also available in the
comp.sources.unix archives.  European sites should request the sources
from their nearest Eunet backbone site.

Standards
---------
News programs communicate with each other according to standard protocols,
some of which are described by RFCs.  An RFC is a Request For Comment, a
de facto standard in the Internet Community.  It is a form of published
software standard, done through the Network Information Center (NIC) at SRI.
Copies of RFCs are often posted to the net and obtainable from archive sites.
Current news-related RFCs include the following:

    RFC 822 specifies the format of messages; RFC 1036 uses this.
    RFC 977 specifies NNTP, the Network News Transfer Protocol.
    RFC 1036 specifies the format of Usenet articles.
    RFC 1123 amends RFC 822.
    RFC 1153 specifies the digest format some moderated groups use.

Newsgroups
----------

The following newsgroups cover issues discussed in this article, and can
be consulted for recent developments.

gnu.emacs.gnews        News reading under GNU Emacs using Weemba's Gnews.
gnu.emacs.gnus        News reading under GNU Emacs using GNUS (in English).
news.software.anu-news    VMS B-news software from Australian National Univ.
news.software.b        Discussion about B-news-compatible software.
news.software.nn    Discussion about the "nn" news reader package.
news.software.notes    Notesfile software from the Univ. of Illinois.
news.software.readers    General discussion about news reading software.

Acknowledgements
----------------
The preparation of this article (and Usenet itself!) was greatly
enhanced by the contributions and assistance of the following persons:
Steve Bellovin, Ray Essick, Mark Horton, Brian Kantor, Phil Lapsley,
Bob Page, Rich Salz, Tom Truscott, and Larry Wall.  Thanks, folks.
--
Gene Spafford
Software Engineering Research Center & Dept. of Computer Sciences
Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-1398
Internet:  [e-mail]    phone:  [phone]
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From: [e-mail] (Gene Spafford)
Newsgroups: news.announce.newusers,news.answers
Subject: Hints on writing style for Usenet
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 19 Oct 92 05:14:45 GMT
Expires: 18 Dec 92 17:14:45 GMT
Followup-To: news.newusers.questions
Organization: Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue Univ.
Lines: 105
Approved: [e-mail]
Supersedes: <[e-mail]>

Archive-name: usenet-writing-style/part1
Original-author: [e-mail] (A. Jeff Offutt VI)
Last-change: 19 July 1992 by [e-mail] (Gene Spafford)

I would like to take a moment to share some of my knowledge of writing
style.  If you read the suggestions below, remember: it's easy to agree
that they make sense but it's much harder to apply them.

References:
 Cunningham and Pearsall, "How to Write For the World of Work"
 Strunk & White, "Elements of Style"

The above references are both excellent books.  Cunningham is a
standard in tech writing classes and won an award for the best tech
writing book from the Association for Teaching of Technical Writing.  I
was lucky enough to take a class from him as an undergraduate.  Strunk
is a standard in college composition classes.  Other ideas here come
from my own experience on the net and hints from other people.

This is a "long article." The rest of it is simply a list of pointers.

               Writing style:

 * Write *below* the readers' reading level.  The avg. person in the US
   reads at a 5th grade level (11 years of age). The avg. professional
   reads at about the 12th grade level (18 years of age).

 * Keep paragraphs short and sweet.  Keep sentences shorter and sweeter.
   This means "concise," not cryptic.

 * White space is not wasted space -- it greatly improves clarity.
   A blank line only adds a byte to the article length, so don't be
   stingy if it will help make your meaning clearer.

 * Pick your words carefully.  Writing with precision is as important
   here as it is in any other kind of discourse.  Consider carefully
   whether what you have written can be misinterpreted, and whether
   that is something you wish to have happen.


 * People can only grasp about seven things at once.  This means ideas in a
   paragraph, major sections, etc..

 * Avoid abbreviations and acronyms, if possible, and define the ones
   you use.

 * There are several variations on any one sentence.  A passive, questioning
   or negative sentence takes longer to read.

 * "Cute" misspellings are difficult to read, especially if the reader
    is not fluent in the language involved.



               Net style:

 * Subtlety is not communicated well in written form - especially over a
   computer.

 * The above applies to humor as well. (rec.humor, of course, not included.)

 * When being especially "flame-boyant", I find it helpful to go to the
   bathroom before actually sending.  Then, I often change the tone
   considerably. :-) Take a break before posting something in anger or that
   might hurt or anger others.

 * Subject lines should be used very carefully.  How much time have you
   wasted reading articles with a misleading subject line?  The "Subject:"
   header line can be edited in all the various posting programs
   (as can the "Distribution:", "Newsgroups:" and "Followup-To:" header
   lines).

 * References need to be made.  When you answer mail, you have the original
   message fresh in your mind.  When I receive your answer, I don't.

 * It's *much* easier to read a mixture of upper and lower case letters.

 * Leaving out articles (such as "the," "a," "an," etc.) for "brevity"
   mangles the meaning of your sentences and takes longer to read. It saves
   you time at the expense of your reader.

 * Be careful of contextual meanings of words. For instance, I used "articles"
   just now.  In the context of netnews, it has a different meaning than I
   intended.

 * Make an effort to spell words correctly.  Obvious misspellings are
   jarring and distract the reader.  Every news posting program allows
   you to edit your article before posting, and most systems have some
   kind of spelling checker program that you can use on your article.

 * Remember - this is an international network.

 * Remember - your current or future employers may be reading your
   articles.  So might your spouse, neighbors, children, and others
   who will long-remember your gaffes.

Enough said.

These suggestions are all easily supported by arguments and research.
There's a lot more to say, but....
--
Gene Spafford
Software Engineering Research Center & Dept. of Computer Sciences
Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-1398
Internet:  [e-mail]    phone:  [phone]
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From: [e-mail] (Edward Vielmetti)
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.wais,news.answers
Subject: WAIS FAQ part 5 of n: Building a WAIS server
Date: 5 Oct 1992 15:52:02 -0400
Organization: Msen, Inc. -- Ann Arbor, Michigan
Lines: 76
Approved: [e-mail] (Edward Vielmetti)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: nigel.msen.com

Archive-name: wais-faq/server-basics

This is a first pass at a "frequently asked questions" series for WAIS.

Part 5 of this FAQ is an overview of the steps you need to take to
build a WAIS server of your own.  (Parts 1-4 and 5-n are not yet
written, but are in progress, albeit slowly).

The basic set of steps is:

Select the data you want to serve.  This may be as simple as "all
  of the mail in my inbox folder" or as complicated as "all of the
  really *good* articles posted to the net in the last year".  You may
  need to do some OCR'ing or some typing to get this step taken care of.

Ensure that you can keep an up to date copy of it on your site.
  If you are the original producer of the information this may be easy;
  if it's stored on a remote ftp site then alex or mirror or ftpget can
  keep it in sync; or if it's broadcast out as netnews the netnews
  CD-ROMs or "rkive" will do the trick.

Munge it into a format that the WAIS indexer will understand, or
  write code that will do the indexing on the format you have.  It's
  relatively straightforward to index things one file, mail message,
  news article, paragraph, line, or dash-separated piece at a time.
  There is a weak spot in the documentation as to what formats are
  supported right out of the box; if your data is complicated this might
  be a fair amount of work to get "right".

Index the data with "waisindex".  Be sure to note the "-mem" option if
  you have a small-ish machine, the "-stdin" option if you have a lot
  of files scattered all over the place, and so on.

Buy some more disk drives, you will need them.

Test the indexes you have to see that they answer the questions you want
  to answer.  If you get rotten results you might have rotten data, or
  out of date or incomplete data, or files that are broken down into bits
  that are too big or too small, or too much redundant text so that
  queries are hard to pick out differences in small details.  Go back
  to the "munge" step or even the "select" step if all is not well here.

Edit the resulting ".src" file you get so that it includes the proper
  name of your system, a nice wordy description of what all people can
  expect to find in the database, and some examples of good questions.
  These are all finder's aids which will help your users use your database.
  Make a note of where you got the original data if that is not apparent.

Arrange for a "waisserver" daemon to be started up out of your
  /etc/rc.local file so that the index is available all of the time.
  Alternatively, add an entry to /etc/inetd.conf and to /etc/services
  so that you can bring up WAIS out of inetd. Take note of the -e
  option so that you can put log files in a safe place.

Search the wais directory of servers to make sure no one else is doing the
  exact same thing, or if they are get in touch with them to collaborate.

Send the .src file into "[e-mail]" so that it
  can be included in the master directory.  Post an announcement to this
  newsgroup so people can quiz you about it or so that they know about
  new stuff.

Trim the log files that WAIS generates so that you can avoid filling up the
  disk that you just bought and so that you can see what it is that
  people are asking of your servers.  Remember that there are privacy
  considerations involved.

I think this just about does it.  There ends up being a fair amount of
other stuff you might find useful to know in the course of bringing up
a server - certainly a working knowlege of news servers, perl, make, cron,
C, yacc or lex, and shell scripts would not hurt in the slightest.
It could be made easier to do I'm sure, though I suspect that building
a good index is still art and not yet science.

Edward Vielmetti, vice president for research, MSEN Inc. [e-mail]
      MSEN Inc., 628 Brooks, Ann Arbor MI  48103 [phone]
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From: [e-mail] (Gene Spafford)
Newsgroups: news.announce.newusers,news.admin,news.answers
Subject: What is Usenet?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 19 Oct 92 05:14:22 GMT
Expires: 18 Dec 92 17:14:21 GMT
Followup-To: news.newusers.questions
Organization: Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue Univ.
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Supersedes: <[e-mail]>

Archive-name: what-is-usenet/part1
Original from: [e-mail] (Chip Salzenberg)
Last-change: 19 July 1992 by [e-mail] (Gene Spafford)


The first thing to understand about Usenet is that it is widely
misunderstood.  Every day on Usenet, the "blind men and the elephant"
phenomenon is evident, in spades.  In my opinion, more flame wars
arise because of a lack of understanding of the nature of Usenet than
from any other source.  And consider that such flame wars arise, of
necessity, among people who are on Usenet.  Imagine, then, how poorly
understood Usenet must be by those outside!

Any essay on the nature of Usenet cannot ignore the erroneous
impressions held by many Usenet users.  Therefore, this article will
treat falsehoods first.  Keep reading for truth.  (Beauty, alas, is
not relevant to Usenet.)

WHAT USENET IS NOT
------------------
 1. Usenet is not an organization.

    No person or group has authority over Usenet as a whole.  No one
    controls who gets a news feed, which articles are propagated
    where, who can post articles, or anything else.  There is no
    "Usenet Incorporated," nor is there a "Usenet User's Group."
    You're on your own.

    Granted, there are various activities organized by means of Usenet
    newsgroups.  The newsgroup creation process is one such
    activity.  But it would be a mistake to equate Usenet with the
    organized activities it makes possible.  If they were to stop
    tomorrow, Usenet would go on without them.

 2. Usenet is not a democracy.

    Since there is no person or group in charge of Usenet as a whole
    -- i.e. there is no Usenet "government" -- it follows that Usenet
    cannot be a democracy, autocracy, or any other kind of "-acy."
    (But see "The Camel's Nose?" below.)

 3. Usenet is not fair.

    After all, who shall decide what's fair?  For that matter, if
    someone is behaving unfairly, who's going to stop him?  Neither
    you nor I, that's certain.

 4. Usenet is not a right.

    Some people misunderstand their local right of "freedom of speech"
    to mean that they have a legal right to use others' computers to
    say what they wish in whatever way they wish, and the owners of
    said computers have no right to stop them.

    Those people are wrong.  Freedom of speech also means freedom not
    to speak.  If I choose not to use my computer to aid your speech,
    that is my right.  Freedom of the press belongs to those who own
    one.

 5. Usenet is not a public utility.

    Some Usenet sites are publicly funded or subsidized.  Most of
    them, by plain count, are not.  There is no government monopoly
    on Usenet, and little or no government control.

 6. Usenet is not an academic network.

    It is no surprise that many Usenet sites are universities,
    research labs or other academic institutions.  Usenet originated
    with a link between two universities, and the exchange of ideas
    and information is what such institutions are all about.  But the
    passage of years has changed Usenet's character.  Today, by plain
    count, most Usenet sites are commercial entities.

 7. Usenet is not an advertising medium.

    Because of Usenet's roots in academia, and because Usenet depends
    so heavily on cooperation (sometimes among competitors), custom
    dictates that advertising be kept to a minimum.  It is tolerated
    if it is infrequent, informative, and low-hype.

    The "comp.newprod" newsgroup is NOT an exception to this rule:
    product announcements are screened by a moderator in an attempt to
    keep the hype-to-information ratio in check.