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1993-06-11
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Readme.2nd for RN 3.8 bugfixed version d 1993/06/11
=========================================================================
1. How to contact me
---------------------
- during normal (sic!) working hours (mine, not yours!) from 7am to 7pm
GMT+0200
- outside working hours try:
o "ping eagle.rz-fh-ulm.de" to see if my machine is running; if you
get a response, I'm here. This might change in the near future
since I'm going to install SLIP on my machines at home and at work.
o "finger va-klaus@charon2.rz.fh-ulm.de" (will show all users logged
to server VA-KLAUS)
or
"finger @charon2.rz.fh-ulm.de" (will show all users logged to all
our servers)
to see if I'm logged to my Novell network; lookout for user MSTAEDT;
(VA-KLAUS is one of our Novell servers, not a user ;-), CHARON2 is
our SMTP gateway)
o "finger mittelst@felix.rz.fh-ulm.de" to see my .plan file if none
of the above methods works; this is my UNIX account, I'll try
to keep the .plan file up to date
- mail gets replied immediately if it reaches me during working
hours, the next work day otherwise
2. Changes & News
------------------
since version 3.8c:
- merely cosmetic: removed all diagnostic messages
- file DDE4.MSG is not longer necessary; runtime error messages are
directly bound to RN.EXE now
- padded all headers/footers to 80 chars; looks rather nice
since version 3.8b:
- made ESC work like F3
- made colors configurable
- reply by mail goes to article's author only if you leave "To:" address
empty
- SMTP header complies with minimal RFC82[12] header and has To:, From:,
Subject: and Date: fields
- increased stack size for 16-Bit functions from default 4 KByte to
16 KByte
since version 3.8a:
- ported RN from TopSpeed-C for OS/2 1.3 to IBM's CSet/2 2.0
- quote char configurable through RNQUOTE=<charcode>, default is '>',
charcode has to be in the range between 32 and 127
- when replying by mail the article now is quoted with RNQUOTE; SMTP
header is quite not complete for sendmail, it has at least the
To:, From: and Subject: fields
- distribution can be set by environment variable
- HPFS filename for signature file allowed
- stretched the limits:
o up to 4000 subscriptions (our newsserver has about 3050
newsgroups!)
o increased buffer size for reading from sockets to 128 KBytes
("article too long" message should now be gone forever!)
o changed buffer logic to use an 8 KByte temporary buffer, which is
copied to the read buffer; did this to handle a misbehaviour which
showed up when I increased buffer size beyond 64 KBytes; slows down
reading from socket a bit
3. Bugs & Fixes
----------------
since version 3.8c:
BUG: RN crashes if RNSIGNATURE variable not set
BUG: RN crashes when scrolling through article list of certain newsgroups
FIX: format buffer for screen header line was too short; long group names
like alt.binaries.pictures.supermodels made buffer expand beyond its
end, thus overwriting the following variables with arbitrary values;
increased buffer size; changed sprintf() format specification to
truncate group name if necessary; thanks to:
Stefan Zollner, Bill (at tamvm1.tamu.edu) and Jon Gough for their
exact bug reports and their patience with testing countless debug
versions of RN
since version 3.8b:
BUG: RN crashes if RNSIGNATURE variable is not set
FIX: not yet ...
BUG: RN seems to hang if a DOS application is running which consumes
lots of processor time; starting such an application while RN is
already running makes RN stop reading more article headers
FIX: looked through Toolkit sample code; changed priority class in the
DosSetPriority() call from "Idle" to "Time-critical"
since version 3.8a:
BUG: plain internet address did not work
FIX: my bug; simply forgot to #include <netlib.h>, so inet_addr() had
no cdecl prototype and the compiler assumed pascal calling convention
BUG: new groups and groups selections hanged because keystrokes were
never removed from the keyboard buffer
FIX: forgot to change two other calls of KbdCharIn with wrong arguments
BUG: RN died when reading all newsgroups from server; EOf not found when
reading groups from NEWS.ALL
FIX: EOF handling corrected
BUG: article headers containing the mark char '*' couldn't be marked
FIX: replaced mark char with 0xFE
BUG: marks on groups in group subscription weren't cleared and did show
in group and article selection
FIX: clear marks after processing newly subscribed groups
BUG: newly subscribed groups were shown as "being loaded" in the group
selection, although the headers were already loaded directly after
subscription
FIX: corrected semaphore handling
4. History
----------
After installing TCP 1.2.1 I was very pleased to find a newsreader for
OS/2, and disappointed some minutes later because it didn't run. I tried
everything, changed my installation, applied the latest CSD's,
recompiled with EMX/GCC and CSET/2. No luck.
Last week I got an old Version of TopSpeed-C for OS/2 1.3 and I
remebered RN. It compiled and linked fine (although it gave me about 300
warnings), but when running it behaved exactly like the original
version.
After countless debugging sessions with a lot of help from T.Gloeckler
(our experienced TopSpeed wizard!) I discovered lot of bugs, which
result from one of the worst C sources I've ever seen.
5. Enhancements
---------------
After fixing all bugs found so far I've made several extensions:
a. added X-Newsreader line to postings and replies
b. added simple signature file facility
c. optional setting of 'Organization:' by environment variable
d. editor configurable by environment variable
6. Sources
----------
Sources for RN have undergone heavy changes, nevertheless they are
proprietary of IBM and I don't know if I can give them away.
To be honest: I don't have the TCP/IP Programming Toolkit, I merely made
use of the PROGCSD available on hobbes ;-) !
7. Thanks
---------
- to Thomas Gloeckler for his unvaluable help with the TopSpeed-
Debugger
- to Chris@csbh.com for his thorough testing of the multithread bugfix
- to all people on the net who tried RN and sent bug reports and
suggestions
8. Notes & Odds
---------------
- somebody suggested making RN shareware. Don't worry about owing
me money for it, this version of RN is free and will remain free.
Sharing a (mostly) usable program with others having the same needs is
my only intention.
- the executables size did grow from about 60 KBytes to about 130 KBytes
when porting to CSet/2 (without debgging info); don't know why ...
- I'm a bit uncertain about version numbering, because RN says "RN version
3.28" in his banner, my versions are called 3.8[ab...]; according to
RCS conventions, version 3.8 is the 20th version BELOW version 3.28!
What should I do now?
9. Future
----------
- I'm thinking about restructuring the souces and introducing
RCS version control, which I use for all my other projects;
unfortunately, RCS for OS/2 doesn't work on NetWare drives.
And my harddisk is nearly full ...
Enjoy and kind regards,
Olaf
--
Olaf Mittelstaedt | Local Mail: mstaedt@va-klaus
Fachhochschule Ulm | Internet : mittelst@fh-ulm.de
Prittwitzstrasse 10 | Phone : ++49 731 502 8220
D-7900 Ulm/Donau | Fax : ++49 731 502 8270