README FILE Version : 1.6 What is SLNR ? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The SLNR package is an off-line usenet news reader : it is intended for users who want to connect to a host, download a packet with new messages, read them on their home machine and upload the replies later. Slnr stands for "Simple Local News Reader" The slnr package contains the following files - getnews.c : This program runs on your unix machine and get all unread articles in all subscribed newsgroups as well as your new mail and creates a packet (.zip, .arc, .zoo) that you can download and view with slnr. - slnr.c : The offline news reader which runs on your local machine and let you view and reply to messages. So far there is a Unix, Dos and Atari version. - postreply.c : Like getnews this program runs on unix machine and post mail and news articles from the reply packet. - colour.h : needed in slnr.c - sig.txt : optional signature to be appended at the end of your messages - slnp.fmt : The packet format - slnr.doc : First try at a documentation What are my objectives ? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - The specification for the format and the sources of getnews and slnr will be widely available and in the public domain. (unlike QWK where the format is cryptic). - There wont be any restriction for people who want to make shareware or commercial version of the software. - There will be a "version" scheme : The packet format should stay the same but even if it has to be altered the version will be noted in the packet so future readers can extract information properly. - Development on multiple platforms will be encouraged (specially Mac and Amigas where I don't have access). However I will keep the master source and will decide how to integrate the updates and bug fixes I receive. - I will also encourage translations of the doc and the user interface (I can work on the french version though :-) ). Where to go from there ? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Compile and test the product on your machine (you don't really need a makefile but feel free to write one if it helps). On the unix machine : compile getnews.c and postreply.c. You may have to modify them for your system. Read the getnews.doc documentation and create a .getnewsrc config file to suit your needs. On the dos/atari/etc... machine : Compile slnr.c, maybe create a "batch" program to extract the files from the packet. - Send comments or bug report to me - If you are interested in SLNR and other off-line news reader, read the usenet newsgroup : alt.usenet.offline-reader Changes since the previous issues ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - 23/05/93 : Start of slnr v2.0. Adding "#ifdef __STDC__" to cope with non ansi compilers. - SLNR : Fixing the mail/posting bug: creation of a special area RMAIL.MSG which contains all replies by mail. - SLNR : Accepting files which are at the mail or MMDF format. - SLNR : Add the "LINES" entry in the config file (however on a dos machine it does not put the machine in that line mode, it just tells SLNR that there are more lines to use). - SLNR : Change the #ifdef DOS to #ifdef __MSDOS__ - Getnews : Print a "." only every 10 articles. - Getnews : If Delete_mailbox is unset, save the content of the mailbox to the $HOME/.oldmail file - Getnews : Fix a bug that was allowing to close stderr. - Getnews : Change the way the compression utility is used. The config file has to have an entry called "compress=" pointing to the program doing the compression and packing. By default /usr/local/bin/zip is used. - Getnews : Add support for a configuration file + creation of getnews.doc - SLNR : support the "quote" entry in the config file - SLNR : Allow header editing for replies. - SLNR : Add the "so.and.so wrote:" line in top of follow-ups - SLNR : Add 's' and 'S' command to save an article to a file - SLNR : Add '!' command to execute a shell program. Thanks to ~~~~~~~~~ - Bob Rusbasan for carrying on intensive tests on the dos version of SLNR and for his overall support. - Dick Grady for helping with getnews.c