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readme.txt
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1997-06-15
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Readme for ProNews/2 Version 1.00 Beta 1
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for evaluating ProNews/2, the best USENET reader for OS/2!
To install please type install on the command line.
Notes about this version
------------------------
+ A number of things are not implemented, including help and POP3
posting. Many of the routines have not been optimized and you may
experience high memory usage. This will be addressed before the final
release of 1.00.
+ There are probably numerous bugs, and without your help we won't be
able to find them. If you have a problem, please email us
(panacea@program.com) and let us know.
+ This version will quit working on August 15th 1997. We have put this
timeout in the code to ensure that people are using the most current
beta. There will be a new beta posted to our website at LEAST two
weeks before this version times out.
+ This (and all beta versions of version 1.00) are free until it times
out. What this means is that if the beta cycle lasts 3 months, and you
use the program for that period you are not expected to pay any money.
By using this beta and reporting bugs/requests you are doing us a
favor, not the other way around. Of course once the final 1.00 is
released this program will become shareware.
Non obvious features
--------------------
+ Using the TAB key on the article windows switches between the article
bodies and article headers windows.
+ The SPACE key pages down the article body window, and when the end of
the article is reached, advances to the next unread article.
+ Each toolbar in the program can be customized. Right click on the
toolbar to learn more. Toolbars for individual groups are saved so you
can give each group you read it's own toolbar suited to it's content.
+ Double clicking on the [+] [-] items in the tree views expands all
sub trees.
+ Selecting all articles in a group will automatically scan for
multimessage binaries and properly decode them for you. Binaries with
missing parts are not downloaded, and are highlighted to let you know
they have missing pieces.
+ To edit an article or message that is queued for send you have to go
into the Queue window and double click on it.
+ Currently the filter language is undocumented in the programs help
files so we have included this as starting point:
Filter/Watch command language. (ProNews Filter Command Language)
PFCL is one of the more complex aspects of the program, but with a
little practice (and this section of the help) it can easily be
mastered.
The boolean operators
---------------------
XOR - Exclusive Or. Two expressions that are exclusive or'd will only
evaluate to true if one or the other is true. If both are true or
false the expression will evaluate to false.
AND - Two expressions that are anded will only evaluate to true if both
of them are true.
NOT - Flips a true expression to false and a false expression to true.
OR - Two expressions that are or'd will only evaluate to true if at
least one of the items is true. Or will only evaluate to false if BOTH
items are false.
Order of precedence - There is no order of precedence to the four
operators. If you need to force precedence or group statements this
may be done with parenthesis.
The operands
------------
subject - This operand is for the subject of the article.
composer - This operand is for composer of the article.
group - This operand is for the group which the article is in. Really
only usefull for global filters or watches.
lines - This operand is for the number of lines. You may specify
greater than, less than, or equal to. The lines operand looks like
this. [lines="300"] Only evaluates to true if the article contains 300
lines. [lines="<300"] Only evaluates to true if the number of lines is
less than 300. [lines">300"] Only evaluates to true if the number of
lines is greater than 300.
Pattern matching - PFCL supports complex pattern matching. * will
evaluate to true when compared to any text. ? will match a single
letter. if the subject of an article is 'Make money fast!'
[subject="*money fast*"] will evaluate to true, whereas [subject="make
money"] will evaluate to false.
Case sensitivity - To make subject and composer matches case sensitive
the subject or composer operands must be specified in all upper case.
So if the subject of an article is 'HI whats happening?' [subject="hi
whats happening?"] evaluates to true and [SUBJECT="hi whats
happening?"] will evaluate to false.
+ Watching. Watching follows the same language rules as filtering, but
either highlights or auto downloads (or both) the article. If a group
has unread watched articles it will be highlighted in the subscriptions
list.
+ Right click on everything. Nearly every part of the program has a
context sensitive menu. Some options may only be reached in this
manner.
Known Bugs and Limitations
--------------------------
High CPU usage when downloading large numbers of small articles. Will
be addressed.
High Memory usage when opening large numbers of group windows.
The help system is in it's very early stages.
Again, thank you for trying ProNews/2!