DNEWS NOTE: libs:arp.library must be present for the 'w' (write to file) command to work. An arp.library is included in the distribution but if you already have arp installed you can ignore it. DNews is the new news reading program, written by yours truely (Matt Dillon). DNews does not modify or delete any news files, but instead keeps track of read articles via a .DNewsRC file... A different file for each user. The format of the .DNewsRC file is as follows: Only the field is currently implemented, other fields are left as a single '-'. The field consists of one or more comma delimited sub fields with optional numeric ranges, in sorted order: y comp.sys.amiga.tech 0-17,22,24-30 - - Indicates that articles 1-17, 22, and 24-30 have been read. The DNews program parses and rewrites the .DNewsRC file according to what you did while in the program. DNEWS MAINTAINS THIS FILE FOR YOU. THE USER NORMALLY NEVER EVEN READS THE FILE. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ GETTING STARTED If a .dnewsrc file does not exist in your UULIB:, DNews will create one automatically by scanning UUNEWS: for appropriate newsgroups. If you later decide to add or drop a newsgroup you must edit the .dnewsrc file. On startup, DNews comes up with a small window listings available newsgroups and the number of unread messages in each. You may click on a given newsgroup at any time to begin reading that group. DNews will bring up a second window containing the current article being read. NOTE: Any window may be moved or resized at any time. DNews will remember the size and placement of all windows and bring them up in the same configuration the next time you use DNews. In the article window keys are defined to move around and do various operations on the article (such as paging up and down, right and left, moving on to the next article, killing it, following its references, etc...). See The command list at the bottom of the manual page for more information. The 'h' command brings up a help window listing the various commands. The most used commands are: -page down n -next m -follow references stopping at the end M -follow references going back to the first unread article at the end f -followup to the newsgroup r -reply to the poster p -post new news ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MAJOR FEATURES Below lists the major features of DNews. These commands are also indicated in the command table at the bottom of this file. (1) [k/K]illing a train of articles DNews allows you to kill future articles that reference the current article. The [k]ill command does so for the current session, while the [K]ill command does so for 30 days. The kill command uses the References: field to determine which articles to kill. Any article whos References: field contains the Message-ID of the article you killed or the Message-ID of any article in the killed article's References: line will be skipped automatically (note that explicitly following a reference list with the 'm' command does not skip killed articles) Long-term killed article Message-ID's are stored in the file .dnewskl in your UULIB: (2) [m/M]essage following a train of articles DNews allows you to follow a particular train of articles related to each other. The [m]essage command searches for an article whos References: field contains the Message-ID of the current article or a Message-ID matching a Message-ID in the References: line of the current article. [m]essage will find ALL references. NOTE: DNews will scan the remaining articles for their Message-ID: and References: lines. These lines are cached within DNews for efficiency so only the first [m]essage command will be slow. [M]essage is the same as [m]essage except that [m]essage stops when it can no longer find any references while [M]essage rewinds to the first UNREAD article (i.e. you continue on to the next topic) (3) References: support DNews automatically adds a References: header to any followups you make, supporting the referencing system. (4) MULTI-USER SUPPORT By setting the USERNAME and REALNAME enviroment variables multiple users on your amiga may independantly read and post news. Each has his own .dnewsrc and .dnewskl file. COMMAND LIST h -help v -go to first unread article. That is, continue on with the next topic after reaching the end of a [m]essage sequence. Note that [M]essage is equivalent to [v] when there are no more references. m -mark article as read and follow references, stopping when no more references to the article are found. Normally you hit this key repeatedly to follow articles with a common subject. The [m]essage command has the ability to pick up a train of articles in the middle of a sequence. NOTE: the 'm' command currently skips articles marked as read. Thus, after sequencing through with 'm' trying to do so again will not work (because you have read all the articles!). This is a bug. M -[m], but instead of stopping at the end of the train it does the equivalent of a [v] command. g -goto a specific article and mark as unread n -mark article as read and go to the next article number s -do not mark article as read, go to the next article number b -go to previous article and unmark (mark as unread) k -kill refs to article for this session K -kill refs to article for 30 days U -unkill refs to article (removes Message-IDs from kill list) w -write article to file r -reply to sender of article R -reply to sender of article including original article contents NOTE: YOU SHOULD TRIM THE INCLUDED TEXT DOWN TO SIZE JUST SO THE SENDER GETS THE JIST OF IT. HE KNOWS WHAT HE SENT. f -followup article to newsgroup (your article references the current article) F -followup article to newsgroup including the original article's contents. NOTE: YOU *MUST* TRIM THE INCLUDED TEXT DOWN TO SIZE JUST SO PEOPLE GET THE JIST OF WHAT YOU ARE COMMENTING ON. NET USERS HAVE ACCESS TO THE FULL CONTENTS OF THE ARTICLE YOU ARE REFERENCING AND DO NOT NEED IT TOLD TO THEM OVER AND OVER. p -Post a new article. You may modify the NewsGroups: line however you like, it need not be restricted to the current news group. DISPLAY CURSOR CONTROLS: 8 9 * page-up top 4 o 6 left-half * right-half 2 3 * page-down bottom also pages down for ease of use.