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WHATSNEW.92D
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1993-03-27
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ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92d 3/27/93
- A major enhancement this time allows interaction with the ZipNews
Door v0.96e to accomplish addition and deletion of newsgroups from
your JOIN file, and to revise your last article read pointers. All
this can be done via packet upload (if the DOOR is v0.96e). The
addition of newsgroups requires that you first download the BBS's
listing of available groups. v0.96e of the Door allows you to go
into the C)onfigure section, cycle through the setups you may not
need to change until you come to an opportunity to respond with a 'Y'
to include a newsgroup listing in the packet downloaded this call.
Once you have opened that packet with the reader, use "Setup" -
"News Selection". Operation thereafter may result (at your option)
in a command file being created for revising your newsgroup selections
and last article read pointers. This file is placed in your "outgoing"
directory (where messages and news postings are placed in the registered
version of the reader). This file and newsgroups selection from remote
are possible using the unregistered from of the software.
- Another big enhancement in this release allows PCBoard sysops and
callers to PCBoard systems (that are Waffle-supplemented) to access
ZipNews for the first time AND to set up newsgroup selections as first-
time callers WITHOUT HAVING TO LOG INTO THE WAFFLE BBS. Yes, on
PCBoard-based systems, Waffle is needed to accomplish the uucp
transport of news and mail, and to establish its structure, provide
user mailboxes, etc., but the Waffle BBS itself is no longer needed.
First-time callers merely login in the usual way on PCBoard systems
with the command: zipnews username
The system will recognize the caller as a first-time user, if
"username" is unique on the system, and prompt the user through the
first call. The first session ends with the caller downloading a
packet containing the BBS's newsgroups list. As described above,
the caller can produce an upload packet containing newsgroup
selections and last article read pointers. After the upload during
the second call to the door, downloads of news may occur in that
session.
Notes on setting last article read pointers: When adding new
newsgroups, it is unlikely you'll know the explicit high article
numbers that would be appropriate. The following convention
seems to work well. Rather than specify an exact article number,
although this is supported if you need the method, you specify
your requirements as: H-nnn where the "H-" merely inform the
system to consider this as "HIGH NUMBER MINUS nnn". So if you
wish to get the last 25 articles from a specific newsgroup, you
would set up the high article number on your reader display as:
H-25 . Simple enough?
Remember that in order to use these capabilities with the door,
you must be interacting with the ZipNews Door v0.96e or a later
release.
- Added ability to specify and invoke your favorite spell checker to
operate on your text. One of the better shareware spell checkers is
ShareSpell. It is available on the Northern Lights as SPELL23D.ZIP.
To enable spell checking, you must have added the configuration
info to your ZNREADER.CFG as shown in the sample .CFG file (the
entry following the editor specification in this sample).
The spell checking is invoked before you save a message or news
posting. You are presented a prompt of "S)ave, A)bort, C)heck,
or E)dit again". If you enter a 'C' you will invoke the your
spell checker.
ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92c 3/24/93
- Stub (not active yet) added for adding/deleting newsgroups via an
upload to the door. Being added to the "Setup" Menu.
- Added to "Setup" menu the ability to change BBS name (for this session
only -- the ZNREADER.CFG file is NOT updated yet).
- When ending the viewing of the last unread message of a thread
where there are no unread threads below or after that thread in a
newsgroup, neither the SPACEBAR nor the TAB key were able to return
the user to the group selection screen. FIXED.
- When in the -L (Waffle Local mode) it is possible an invalid DOS
directory name willl be sought. Therefore, we Added code to avoid a
possible invalid DOS dir name when encountering a "c++" newsgroup. The
code now ASSUMES (without checking the USENET file's /dir= entry) that
the sysop has specified a directory name of cpp for c++.
- Added 'x' as an additional key that could be struck to exit thread
selection and restore the group selection screen.
- If you add a line in your ZNREADER.CFG file which begins with the
word "aliases" (ignore the quotes), and following that word somewhere
on that line is a ":" (colon, ignore the quotes) followed by a
filename (full pathname OK, and preferred), the named file will be
referenced for an alias to substitute for the name you entered on
the "To: " line of a message. The format of the file is straight
ASCII with a CR/LF terminating each line. If a line begins with other
than a "#" or a " " (space, ignore quotes), the word to the 1st space
will be what is compared to your "To: " entry. Anything else on that
line after the first space until the end or another space (or any
whitespace) is what will be substituted for the first word when it
matches your "To: " entry.
ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92b 3/07/93
- Perhaps the biggest single enhancement to date was completed today.
The ZipNews reader can now serve as a local reader/mailer utility
for Waffle sysops. It can be run standalone, imports mailbox.f
contents (appendiing to what may already be in your reader's "home"
directory). It will not delete your mailbox.f file. The Waffle
local mode will handle Waffle's news directory structure. It must
build indices, however, each time you add news to the system in order
for the reader to access new articles. The reader updates your JOIN
file, so you might want to make backup copies if you'd like to go
back and read news with a different facility.
The Waffle local mode requires: 1) the WAFFLE enviroment variable to
be set (and pointing to the STATIC file), and 2) the ZNREADER.CFG
file must have the specification for your news directory location(s).
The reader does read your STATIC file, but it will NOT obtain news
directory locations via your USENET and LOCAL files (yet).
You invoke the Waffle local mode of operation by starting the reader
with the command line parm of -L (or -l, it's case insensitive).
You can readily tell that you are in the Waffle local mode, by the
token "<WAFFLE>" that appears in the center of the time/date bar at
the bottom of the screen.
By the way (and I *DO* have to get to the reader docs very soon(!)),
to invoke a monochrome mode of operation for better viewing on
laptop LCD's, use the -m command line parm when invoking. In fact
to see the few options available specify: ZNR ?
- Found that "Subject:" lines were being truncated to 58 characters by
replies and follow-ups. System changed to truncate very long subjects,
but to allow at least lines up to 75 characters long.
ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92a 3/05/93
- Header line control for replies and follow-ups completed.
- Added anti-viral/anti-tampering code.
- Eliminated still another cause of over-printing on menu screen when
when shelling to DOS file handling functions (copies, deletes, etc.).
ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92 3/04/93
- One of the key features of the final reader/mailer was added today --
the ability to specify and manage the Internet message headers commonly
used with mail, and a slightly different set used with news. When
entering either a message or a news article, and when prompted for the
"Subject:", if you hit Ctrl-H you will be given an entry screen for
configuring the desired message/article headers.
This degree of control of header lines is not yet available while
preparing replies and follow-ups, but it's coming.
ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.91g 3/01/93
- Fixed a bug which was screwing up and mixing up the colors of
quoted text vs. original text in article/message displays.
- The 'q' key was not quitting out of reading an article/message. Fixed
- Pathnames selected via the pick list (such as in the "Retrieve" operation)
were not being processed correctly if in excess of 30 characters. The
result could hang the system. FIXED!
- Corrected occasional "File Not Found" displays that would appear on
the menu display (file deletion commands were being issued behind the
scenes without regard for whether they were there or not, and some of
these deletes did not find a file to delete). FIXED.
ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.91f 2/28/93
- Several beta testers hve suggested the addition of a "home" directory
concept, as result of having started the reader on more than one
occasion in a directory that they had not intended. So, with this
release, the "home" directory specification has been added as an
optional specification. If found in the ZNREADER.CFG file, the
reader will switch to the specified drive and directory for operations.
If the home directory is not specified, the reader will operate in
the current directory.
- Have added ability to tailor different colors for the quoted text that
appears in mail messages and news postings. See the end of the
ZNREADER.CFG file included in this archive.
- Improved the functionality of the SPACEBAR when used to PgDn thru an
article or message. Previously, it would not advance to the next
unread article until you had "driven" the last line of the article
up to the top line of the screen. Now, if you hit SPACEBAR when
the last line of the message is on-screen, your display will advance
to the next unread item. Nice! (..if I DO say so myself.<g>)
(Thanks to Ed Krol, whose description of SPACEBAR in nn, in his
"Whole Internet . . ." book, convinced me to incorporate this.)
ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.91e 2/26/93
- When quoting portions of an article or message which included its
header lines, the indexing operation of the reader would get confused
and index erroneously. Fixed.
- The shell to OS (Drop to DOS) function, FILES - OS Shell, activated by
the "quick key" F7, was not coded to reference the COMSPEC environment
variable...and thus would not work in non-standard environments. Fixed.
- Folks have been pretty much pleased with the standard colors of the
reader, but their have been several requests for the ability to
customize the article/message display screen (which has been arbitrarily
a simple grey on black). This version allows you to specify the
foreground and background colors of the article/message screen. See
the new specifications at the end of the ZNREADER.CFG file included
in this archive. Use your editor to copy these lines to your current
ZNREADER.CFG and set your own colors.
- You can now use the F1 key to select HELP (in addition to the "h" and
"?" keys).
- Extended by 6 characters the length of the Subject: line that can be
shown in the header area of the article/message screen. (Every character
counts . . .)
- When "catching up" newsgroups or threads within a group using the "c"
key, the selection arrow will automatically advance to the next group
or thread with unread article.s
ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.91d 2/25/93
- Maror re-arranging of main menu for clarity. Eliminated
overwriting of mail as an option. In registered readers, mail as
always appended to existing mail. For a while, you're going to
have to houseclean your own mail -- by either deleting username.MAI or
or by editing that file manually (it IS editable).
- If you attempt to Quit out of the reader after composing mail or
newsarticles, you are reminded that they are there and asked if you
would like to create an upload packet. No more forgetting to
create upload packets, thank goodness!
- Changed mask for displaying stored packets to "*.z*". So, all files
with a "z" as 1st pos. of extension will show in the pick list shown
during the "Restore" request.
- New follow-up function in which some editors (Qedit for one) would
experience long line problems because quoted article contained only
CRs, rather than CR/LF combination. FIXED.
- Fixed something that "broke" a couple of releases ago. The mail.log
file was no longer accumulating copies of mail sent. FIXED.
- When the mail.seq or news.seq files (which count mail or news article
numbers, used as part of filename extension) reached 100, they did
not re-cycle to 0. Fixed.
2/24/93
- Fixed loss of cursor in some editors during the shell. Especially
bothersome to users of Qedit and TED.
- Fixed the Reply-To: header (from Reply_To:)
ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.91c (2/23/93)
The following have been added/fixed since the previous Beta:
- More complete headers in mail. Added a "X-Mailer:" line.
Also, "Reply-To:" is now added to the message if included in the
ZNREADER.CFG file.
(Note this change will cause failure to produce proper message headers
within versions of the ZipNews Door prior to v0.96b version of that
door. v0.96b of the door can handle messages from the prior newsreader
but older doors are not "forward" compatible.)
- When replying to mail, it no longer starts quoting with
"In YOUR_PERSONAL_MAIL you wrote:", now says "In your earlier message
you write:".
- There was a bug whereby your last read indicators would be lost when
switching from NEWS mode to MAIL mode or vice versa. Fixed.
- Added ability to append new mail received to prior mail in the current
directory when loading a new packet.