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RUSNEWS.DOC
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1992-11-03
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[ note: trademarks may be used in this document. use of trademarks does not
indicate any endorsement of products or corporations, any disprespect for
trademark law, any contesting of the validity of the trademarks, etc. etc. ]
Rusnews:
threaded newsreader with killfiles and crosspost filtering for ms-dos waffle.
Author
------
Russell Schulz - russell@alpha3.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (921103)
Credits
-------
Kim Storm - author of `nn' - a much more powerful Unix newsreader
Version for This Document
-------------------------
0.9 (this information can be found in the start of rusnews.pas)
Companion Software
------------------
trived.exe - trivial editor. vi-like, somewhat minimal updating, can be
used on the console without ANSI.SYS present, takes about 50k (so runs
underneath rusnews0, the smaller-memory version (included))
if anyone else has an editor which does these things
- small memory requirements
- runs on console (without ANSI.SYS) and through a fossil driver
- secure - no yanking in of unallowed files
please let me know.
Limitations
-----------
quite a few - listed in start of rusnews.pas
the one that will seem to concern most users will be lack of posting
capability. I send out far more email than postings, and I don't miss
it much yet. I personally believe this tends to keep the quality of
net postings higher, since flamage is confined to the one person to
whom you're sending mail, as opposed to being broadcast to the world.
Intended Users
--------------
people who run ms-dos waffle at the console (not through a dialup line)
who have total control to the computer anyway. rusnews allows editing of
postings in place, modification of headers, and shelling to the command
line (through an editor).
with v0.9 rusnews can be run over the phone lines. when run over the
phone lines, it defaults to a non-trusted mode (which can be overridden
by the command line (using different extern entries)) which does not
allow users to edit articles or change their From: lines.
source code (compilable with Borland's Turbo Pascal 4) should have been
included, since that's the way I sent it out.
How To Set It Up
----------------
possibly, you may not have to do a thing. if you want, you can set NET_NAME
to be the user name, or just pass it in on the command line. if your editor
is not c:\usr\bin\vi.exe, set EDITOR.
example: waffle id john, editor is emacs:
set NET_NAME=John
set EDITOR=c:\tools\emacs.exe
for waffle 1.65 users, set FULLNAME and WAFVERSION.
example: full name is John Doe, waffle version is 1.65:
set FULLNAME=John Doe
set WAFVERSION=1.65
NET_NAME, EDITOR, and FULLNAME can be passed in as command-line paramaters.
Minimal Instructions on How To Read News With It (Console)
----------------------------------------------------------
run it.
C:\>rusnews <-'
if you haven't set NET_NAME, it will need a command-line parameter - your
waffle user id
C:\>rusnews -u john <-' or C:\>rusnews --user john <-'
it will then back up your join file (to join.bak) and kill file (to kill.bak)
if they exist. then for each group in your join file it will find the
postings you have not yet read and sort them by threads. for each group
with unread postings, a listing of From: and Subject: line data will be
displayed. hit ? for help at this point. usually, you just hit unshifted
letter keys to select articles, and space to go to the next selection screen.
after the last selection screen, each selected article is brought up for
browsing. hit ? for help at this point, too - different functions are
available.
while it is reading in unread postings, it will continually list the article
numbers followed by a space. (if an article is killed, or is malformed,
the article number will be followed by a `k'; if was `seen' or seeable from
a group located before this one in your join file, the article number will
be followed by an `s'). while this is going on, you can hit `Q' to quit
immediately, `N' to start on the next group immediately, or `O' to read
only the articles which have already been scanned.
Where You Can Hit Control-Break Safely
--------------------------------------
- while it is reading in unread articles, where it will be roughly equivalent
to hitting `Q' - an immediate quit, with all join file information preserved.
- while reading news, where it will quit without updating the join file for
this group, which is roughly equivalent to quitting and getting the data from
the join.bak file for that group.
Command-Line Options
--------------------
-u --user set the username -u john
if not present, it will use NET_NAME
-n --newsgroup jump directly to a newsgroup -n comp.bbs.waffle
if not present, or invalid, it will just go through the join file
-p --port specify a fossil port -p 0 (0=com1, 1=com2)
if not present, will use the console
-f --fullname set the full name -f John_Doe
underscores will be changed to spaces; not necessary for waffle v1.64
-e --editor set the editor -e d:/path/editor.exe
if not present, will use EDITOR; if neither present, c:\usr\bin\vi.exe
-o --options editor options -o !_w:\user\%A
underscores will change to spaces; do not include filename
-s --forumset specify the forum set -s usenet
if not present, will use `usenet' if found in forums static entry.
if not present and `usenet' not in forums static entry, will use first found.
-t --trusted allow a remote user to edit articles, change From: lines
a console user will be allowed to do anything. a dialin user will only be
allowed to do everything if this parameter is given. this option must be
given after -p/--port to take effect.
Phone In Usage
--------------
- requires a fossil driver, and use of the smaller-limits version (commonly
called rusnews0.exe) to fit under waffle (if you use shroom, this may be
unnecessary - I haven't tried)
- set up extern entries
for com1:
waffle/extern/rusnews: (split for ease of reading - all one line)
/program="w:/waffle/bin/rusnews0 -u %A -e w:/waffle/bin/trived.exe -o !"
for com2:
waffle/extern/rusnews: (split for ease of reading - all one line)
/program="w:/waffle/bin/rusnews0 -p 1 -u %A -e w:/waffle/bin/trived.exe -o !"
for trusted users:
waffle/extern/trustedn: (split for ease of reading - all one line)
/access=9 /program="w:/waffle/bin/rusnews0 -t -u %A
-e w:/waffle/bin/trived.exe -o !"
Redeeming Features
------------------
- compatible with waffle - no separate database or maintenance required
- hit `k' while reading to kill that subject or author, either in that
group or in all groups
- automatic filtering of crossposts - any article which is crossposted
will only be shown if the group you're reading is the first one in your
join file to which it was posted.
- can be used over a phone line