# $ K Usenet News

The Usenet News, or Netnews, system is a kind of distributed bulletin board system run on thousands of computers world-wide.  Users of Usenet News exchange views and information by writing articles, which are then transmitted automatically amoungst the computers in the network.  Once posted, an article can by read by others days, hours, or even minutes later, depending upon their computer's type of network link to Usenet.

Articles are organized by topic area into newsgroups, of which there are currently over 1000.  
# $ K Overview of WinVN

WinVN is a Microsoft Windows-based news reader.  Like other news readers, it can be used to select, view, and write Usenet Newsarticles.  WinVN can also be used to send (but not receive) electronic mail messages.

WinVN offers a more visual approach to Usenet News than most other news readers.  WinVN allows you to easily navigate amoungst newsgroups and articles via its point-and-click interface.

In normal operation, WinVN displays three types of windows:  the main window, which displays a list of all newsgroups; one or more group windows, each of which displays a list of the articles in a newsgroup; and one or more article windows, which each displays an article.  Double-clicking on a newsgroup or article name causes that item to be displayed in a separate window.

When you want to write an article, WinVN displays a posting window for that purpose.  See Posting an Article.  Similarly, when you want to write an electronic mail message, WinVN displays a mail window to accept your text.  See Mailing a Message.

WinVN offers a number of configuration options; see Options Menu Commands.

# $ K History of WinVN

WinVN was written at home as an own-time project by me, Mark Riordan, a systems programmer at Michigan State University.  The program and its source code have been placed in the public domain.  WinVN is not a product of MSU or any other institution.  

Serioius development of WinVN began in September 1989.  It continues, in fits and starts.  A Macintosh version was developed, but it is no longer in sync with the latest Windows version and is not being distributed (I think!).  The recent release of a number of good Macintosh newsreaders has convinced me to cease development of the Mac version.  Besides, I don't own a Mac.

You can correspond with the author of WinVN at the email addresses riordanmr@clvax1.cl.msu.edu or 17362MRR@MSU.BITNET.

Mark R.   Lansing, Michigan    September 1991