Thoth is a Usenet newsreader application for Macintosh. Its features include automatic viewing of downloaded images, binary posting, flexible article filtering (kill files) and sorting, reference-based threading, and comprehensive multiple character set support for reading and posting in non-English language and non-Latin alphabet newsgroups. It can be used both as an online and offline newsreader.
A number of Thoth's features are crippled until it has been registered. The program will not remember which posts in the newsgroups you subscribe to have already been read. Binary posting is disabled, and only 20 posts or downloads to disk can be done per newsreading session. The kept article features are also disabled. Thoth will also display a nag alert when starting up and quitting if it has not been registered. After you register by using the “Register Thoth” application to pay for Thoth using the Kagi payment service, you will receive by email the registration key needed to unlock all of Thoth's features and functionality. You can also register Thoth online via a secure server:
<https://order.kagi.com/?BA>
Thoth requires at least 3500 kB of free RAM, and either CarbonLib 1.0.4 and System 8.5 or later or Mac OS X.
Thoth was written by Brian Clark:
<mailto:baclark@kagi.com>
The home site for Thoth is:
<http://www.thothsw.com>
Starting Up
When you start the program for the first time it creates a “Thoth Preferences” folder in the current Preferences folder. This is where Thoth will store its preferences and various settings that are used across multiple news servers. If you wish to have the program preferences stored elsewhere, after quitting the program you may move the folder to another location, and place an alias to the moved folder in the Preferences folder. The alias file must have the name “Thoth Preferences.”
Inside the Thoth Preferences” folder is the “Thoth Prefs” file. This file contains all the settings that are edited in the program's “General Preferences” dialog, plus your filters and newsgroup settings. The folder also contains the “Thoth Servers” folders which holds items for the “Switch Servers” command, the “Thoth Stationery” folder for personalities, and the “Thoth Signatures” folder for random signature support. The “Thoth Servers” and “Thoth Stationery” are automatically managed by Thoth. Placing text files in the “Thoth Signatures” will permit them to be used as random signatures.
Thoth will create a set of default preferences when it first starts up. Before the program can be used you must perform some additional steps to fill in needed information about yourself and the news and mail servers you wish to use.
1) After starting the program for the first time, use the “General Preferences” command. This displays the multi-pane “General Preferences” dialog. It is particularly important to enter your name and email address in the “Message Options” pane of the dialog, and to specify a mail server in the “Mail Servers” pane.
2) Close the “General Preferences” dialog. Now choose “New News Server” from the File menu. You'll be shown a dialog that has 3 panes. Enter the name of your news server and other settings in the first pane, and any needed authentication settings in the second pane. Click OK to close the dialog. Next you're presented with a new folder dialog, asking you where you want to create and save the new folder that will have the news server settings file. Create the new folder where you wish. Finally you'll then see the Change Servers alert asking you if you want to use the new server. Say yes. The program should then proceed to get the full newsgroup list from the news server.
3) Once the program has completed getting the full newsgroup list and is idle, you can create your subscribed newsgroup lists. Use the “News Server Preferences” command in the Edit menu to display the “News Server Preferences” dialog again. Go to the “Group Lists” pane of the dialog. Click on the “Add New” button to create a new group list window. The window will be displayed after you close the “News Server Preferences” dialog. Enter a name for the new window, click OK to close the dialog, then click OK again to close the “News Server Preferences” dialog. The new, empty group list window will now be shown.
4) Use the “Show Full Group List” command from the Windows menu to display the list of all newsgroups on your news server. Choose which newsgroups you wish to subscribe to, and drag them to the new group list window. Use the Save command to save your group list. You can now begin to read news using Thoth.
Converting from Yet Another NewsWatcher or Other NewsWatcher versions
Thoth does NOT read YA-NewsWatcher or other NewsWatcher files. Please don't try using old files by renaming them or changing their creator or type codes. You'll have to recreate some preferences and settings from scratch. Your existing filters can be transferred from YA-NewsWatcher using one of the two enclosed converter apps. The other converter app will allow you to transfer your subscribed newsgroups from a NewsWatcher version to Thoth. If you wish to move your old filters and newsgroup settings and subscribed group lists to Thoth, you should do this BEFORE you run Thoth and create any new settings for it.
Note that you start Thoth in 1 or 2 ways: by double-clicking the file icon or the icon of a news file. Unlike NewsWatcher you do NOT start the program or switch servers by using a prefs file. The Thoth prefs file should never be used for this. Unlike NewsWatcher it just has general preferences settings and does NOT contain any news server specific settings. Therefore you use only one prefs file no matter how many news servers you use.
Here are the steps to follow to bring over some settings from a NewsWatcher version to Thoth.
1) Double click the Thoth file icon. Since you haven't run the program before, you have not set some necessary preferences like your name and which mail servers you use. So once the program is finished starting up you should use the “General Preferences” command. I suggest that you go through all the preference panels and make the required changes EXCEPT for the Filter Options panel. You'll do that later.
2) Close the “General Preferences” dialog. Now choose “New News Server” from the File menu. You'll be shown a dialog that has 3 panes. Enter the name of your news server and other settings in the first pane, and any needed authentication settings in the second pane. Click OK to close the dialog. Next you're presented with a new folder dialog, asking you where you want to create and save the new folder that will have the news server settings file. Create the new folder where you wish. Finally you'll then see the Change Servers alert asking you if you want to use the new server. Say yes. The program should then proceed to get the full newsgroup list from the news server.
3) Once the program has completed getting the full newsgroup list and is idle, quit the program.
4) If you were not using YA-NewsWatcher, you cannot transfer your filters or newsgroup settings, and you should skip to step 6. Otherwise you can now transfer over certain YA-NewsWatcher settings, such as your filters and filter labels (but not any other filter settings), and your newsgroup settings.
5) In the Finder locate your old YA-NewsWatcher prefs file and also the “YA-NewsWatcher Filters” file. Double click the “filter->pref” program and choose Open from the File menu. It will first ask you set select the old prefs file, and then ask for the filters file. It then asks for your new Thoth prefs file. Navigate to the prefs folder, locate the Thoth Preferences folder inside it, and then inside this folder you'll find the Thoth Preferences file. The program will then transfer your filters and filter labels and newsgroup settings. Choose quit.
6) Now locate your old NewsWatcher subscribed group files. You may have one or more. Double click on the “user->news” program and choose Open from the File menu. It asks you to locate a newsgroup file. Choose the first of your NewsWatcher subscribed group files. It then asks for the Thoth news file. Find it inside the new folder you created as part of the New News Server command in Thoth. If you have additional subscribed group files, repeat the process with each: choose File Open, select the old NewsWatcher file, select the new Thoth news file. Quit when you're done with all the user group files.
7) Finally restart Thoth by double clicking the new news file. Go into the “Filter Options” pane of the “General Preferences” dialog and make any needed prefs changes there. Use the New Personality command to create your personality files, including one named Default, and save them using the “Save As” command. If you brought over any newsgroup settings from YA-NewsWatcher you should edit them in Thoth to ensure that the “Message Options” portion of each has the personality you want for that setting.
Carbon and OS X Bugs
Unfortunately both CarbonLib for OS 8.6 and 9 and OS X are rather buggy and do not fully and correctly implement all the features that they should. As much as possible Thoth tries to work around these bugs. But some bugs will cause improper behavior. One example of this are the Apple and Help menus. Under CarbonLib 1.0.4 programs can't add items to the Help menu. That means that Thoth can't add the files in the “Thoth Help” folder to the help menu where they're readily available. So there's no online help with CarbonLib 1.0.4. CarbonLib 1.1 fixes this problem and makes the Apple menu items unavailable, so that the “About Thoth” command is not available. OS X has all kinds of compatibility problems and quirks and bugs. This may explain why some features don't work properly in Thoth.
More Information
More information on using Thoth and its various features can be found in the User Guide. Please read it carefully and fully to help to make your newsreading with Thoth as pleasurable and easy as possible. The User Guide and other informative documents can be read from within Thoth by going to the Help menu and selecting the item you wish to read.
