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Text File | 1995-04-10 | 22.5 KB | 444 lines

HELP FILE FOR NET READER ©1994/5 Paul Vigay ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ v0.09 (BETA TEST) LAST UPDATE - 10th Apr 1995 Copyright Notice ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This application is SHAREWARE. You are free to copy and use !NetReader for a maximum of 14 days, providing you adhere to the following conditions. a) All files remain the copyright of the author (ie. Paul Vigay) b) All files are copied in their entirety without any alteration. c) Usage of this application is entirely at the users own risk. No responsibility will be taken for any loss or damage, financial or otherwise which may arise from usage of this application. d) This application should NOT be distributed by Shareware or PD libraries without my express written permission. Permission is also granted for any user to freely copy this version of !NetReader,subject to the person(s) receiving it also obeying the conditions given above. If you like !NetReader and continue to use it after 14 days, you should obtain your own registered copy by sending a cheque or postal order made payable to Paul Vigay, to 104 Manners Road, Southsea, Hants., PO4 0BG, England In return you will receive a registered copy and be eligible to receive updates to future versions. Registered users are also entitled to receive a copy of the full printed manual when it is complete. You can also obtain the latest version (and support) by calling my bulletin board on (01705) 871531 (ANSI, 8N1) or Emailing me at pvigay@cix.compulink.co.uk Purpose ~~~~~~~ This application is designed for offline reading of Usenet messages downloaded from CIX or other Internet servers. It should be compatible with all Usenet message files using the "#! rnews" format (see below) This Help file is intended as a short introduction to !NetReader, in order to 'get you going'. When I'm happy that !NetReader is nearing completion, I will produce a full printed manual which will be available free to registered users. Until then, I hope you can understand this file. Users upgrading to a new version number are also advised to read the 'History' file contained within !NetReader.Docs directory. This details on-going changes. Acknowledgements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks are due to the following:- Acorn, for inventing the world's best computer. Dabs Press for writing ABC compiler (used to compile NetReader), the best Archie compiler available. Everyone at the Portchester Computer Club - for generally beta-testing my software. My girlfriend Jan, for endless cups of tea and putting up with my late night's programming. Pink Floyd and Queen, for creating some excellent background music to program to. and anyone else whom I may happen to know, but forgot to mention. Fox Television, for producing The X Files - ideal viewing when not programming! Instructions ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Load !NetReader by double-clicking on it's icon in the directory viewer. It should then appear on the RISC OS icon bar after a few seconds. Having downloaded your Usenet messages file from CIX (or elsewhere), you can simply drag the file onto this icon. !NetReader will then load and organise them so that you can read through them one at a time. Versions 0.07 and above will also read Archived source files - assuming that !SparkFS or !Sparkplug is already loaded. The Usenet message file should be in the Rnews format. (see appendix a) If it is not, an error will be flagged. Assuming that the import file is in the correct format, you may have to wait a few minutes for !NetReader to sort out all the messages and generate it's link tables. (See later for details on multi-tasking or non multi-tasking loading) When loading is complete, two windows will be displayed:- The CONTROL window and window containing the actual MESSAGE. The message window displays the first message in the file (minus all the header blurb at the top of it) and the control window shows origination details for the current message (ie the one in the message window). The control window contains several icons on the right hand side. These are: (graphic) LED: The LED, if illuminated, informs you that the current message contains a reference to you. The LED appears red if illuminated, otherwise it is grey for off. Last: Display the previous message in the file. Next: Display the next message in the file. Goto: Lets you select which message you want to display. (Clicking on this option gives a standard RISC OS menu, containing all the subject titles for the messages in the file. This may take a little while to display, depending on how many messages are in the file.) N.B. Any subjects highlighted in red indicate a reference to your userID contained in the message. Reply: Opens an editable 'reply' window in which you can type a reply message. (see below) Store: Store this message within !NetReader for later reference. (graphic) Bin: Tag this message to be deleted when you Quit !NetReader. NB. Closing the file (see below) will ask you for confirmation before deleting any tagged messages. NB2. If you delete ALL the messages then the message file will also be deleted. Above these four icons is shown the current message number, and the total number of messages in the file. Note, the message number is the position in the file and NOT the actual Newsgroup message number, which is displayed in the message window title bar. The message window simply displays the text of the current message. Clicking SELECT will highlight any specific lines. Highlighting can be toggled on and off (by clicking SELECT) and is used when replying, to quote from the original message. Clicking MENU in either the control window or the message window will display the same 'Main Menu'. Message Threads (v0.07 and above) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When reading messages, some may be replies to previous messages, while some may have replies to themselves. If the current message is referenced elsewhere in the message file, the computer will open a small 'Thread' window, just underneath the CONTROL window. This has four functions:- A 'Previous' option, allows you to find the previous message that the current message is a reply to. The 'Next' icon takes you to the next message given as a reply to the current message. The 'Back' icon takes you back to the previous message. Using this icon, you can backstep through the previous messages. Clicking MENU over the 'Thread' window, displays a menu (after a short delay) displaying all messages that are replies to the current message. SELECTing one of these will jump straight to it. Clicking MENU whilst the mouse pointer is over either the control window or the message window will display the main menu:- The Main Menu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Main Menu currently contains six options:- Export: Export the current message as plain ASCII text. This opens a standard RISC OS save dialogue box. Explode: Allows you to automatically 'explode' the messages in the message file into individual files. NetReader will automatically create filenames consisting of valid characters in the subject line. N.B. Duplicate names will automatically be numbered and new directories will be created automatically every 60 messages. As messages are 'exploded', they are also flagged for deletion, irrespective of their age. New message Enter a new message either to the current news group, or a private message to the sender of the message you are currently reading. Jump to... This lets you jump to any message in the source file. N.B. This is the message in the file, entered by number, not the Newsgroup message or the message subject. (see above for going to messages by subject reference) Search for: Allows you to enter a string to search for. !NetReader will then search through the entire message file until it finds a message that contains the target string. !NetReader will then display the relevant message. N.B. Search is NOT case-sensitive. Quote: This option is normally greyed out unless you have opened the reply window by clicking on 'Reply' in the control window. If you are typing a reply, this option will simply copy any marked lines in the original message into your reply message. When it has made the copy, the original lines are automatically un-marked. Utils: Gives a sub-menu from which you can set flags for a range of messages as follows:- Tag: Tag messages for deletion. Untag: Mark messages NOT to be deleted. Read: Mark messages as "Read". Unread: Mark messages as "Un-read". Find self: Find the next message to have a reference to your user ID in it. Close file: Close this file, forgetting about any 'delete' tagged messages. After closing the file, clicking SELECT on the !NetReader icon will simply open the stored messages file. The Reply Window ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The reply window contains a fairly primitive text editor by which you can type and edit your replies to messages. Dragging a text file into the reply window allows you to import ASCII text files into your reply. The line length of replies can be adjusted via the 'Choices' window. (see below) You can move around by using the normal cursor keys, or by clicking SELECT on the mouse. There are also the following key functions:- f10 Delete line Shift f10 Insert Line Delete Delete the character to the left of the caret. Copy Delete the character to the right of the caret. Insert Toggle Insert/Overtype mode CTRL ⇦ Move to beginning of line CTRL ⇨ Move to the end of the line CTRL ⇩ Move to the bottom of the reply CTRL ⇧ Move to the top of the reply Shift ⇦ Jump to the previous word Shift ⇨ Jump to the next word The editor will word-wrap automatically if you type off the end of the line. If you wish to enter a subject to include in the header information in your reply, click SELECT in the 'Subject' icon in the control window. This icon is writable, so that you can edit the subject. Leave it alone if you wish to quote the original subject. Clicking MENU when the mouse pointer is over the reply window will give you the 'Reply menu'. This is currently as follows:- Quote: Quote lines from the original message (the same as on the main menu). Sign: Sign the message with your signature (see below) and close the reply window. Send: This will close the reply window, still adding the reply to the reply file, but without appending your signature. Abort: Forget the reply and close the reply window. A number of settings in !NetReader can be customised to suit your tastes. This is done via clicking SELECT on the 'Choices' option on the icon bar menu. The Choices window ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Opening the choices window allows you some control over how !NetReader behaves when reading or replying to messages. There are a number of options, separated into different sections. These are all described below:- Username: This icon should contain your full username. eg. pvigay@cix.compulink.co.uk It is used to include in the reply header to any messages you reply to. Tab stops: Sets the positioning of tab stops whenever ASCII character 9 is read when loading Usenet messages. This tries to ensure that signature lines appear correctly. Multi-tasking: Toggles multi-tasking loading on and off. If on, NetReader will multitask while loading a new file. If off, it will load approx 30% faster, although you won't be able to use the computer in the meantime. If you press ESCAPE during non-multitasking loading, then NetReader will revert back to multi-tasking mode. To cancel loading all together, close the small red 'Loading' window. Obviously, while multitasking loading, do not close the import file or try loading another file. If you do, NetReader will abort the load. Stored messages: Delete after: There are a number of icons here, that control the frequency of message purging on the stored files. !NetReader stores each message and thus can grow to become *VERY* large. !NetReader allows the option to automatically delete each message as soon as it becomes a certain age. To work, simply click on the relevant icons. Auto cancel store: If on, then the store message flag (see main control window) will turn off as soon you read each message. This is so that you need only store interesting messages and not store every message that you read. Explode as: Determines the maximum filename to use when the Explode option is used from the main menu. DOS will limit the filenames to 8 characters, whereas ADFS will allow up to 10 characters. Signature: Sign: Enter a string here (max 255 characters) This string will be added to the bottom of each reply message when you click the 'Sign' option on the reply menu. Control characters can be added by use of |, followed by a letter. for example, to send a linefeed, enter |M. N.B. If you want the actual character | in your signature, enter ||. If you enter <longsig> as your signature, !NetReader will automatically use the file called !NetReader.Resources.longsig as your signature line. This allows for multi-line signatures. Obviously usage of this depends upon whether you have a .signature file on your internet host. Add fortune cookie: If this option is on (toggle by clicking SELECT) then a random 'fortune cookie' will be appended to your reply underneath your signature when you sign your reply. (See below for adding new messages) Replies (Replies is relevant to general replies sent back to Usenet news groups) Width of reply window:Lets you set the line width of your replies. Auto wipe before If this option is on, then when you reply for first reply: the first time after loading !NetReader, the replies file will be deleted. This ensures that replies from previous sessions don't keep extending the reply file. Of course, if you re-load !NetReader before uploading your reply file to Usenet you could end up overwriting it, so be careful how you set this value. Reply file: This allows you to set the destination file in which to store your replies. Drag as per usual RISC OS conventions. Private replies:- These settings work in exactly the same was as for general replies (described above) but are for messages sent as a personal reply to a specific person. N.B. Make sure that the 'Replies' and 'Private' filenames are different, or they will end up overwriting each other, thus losing your text. Save as default: This will save the settings above back to disc so that next time you load !NetReader they will be the default values. Cancel: Cancel any changes and re-load the previous 'default' file. OK: Close the choices window without saving the choices back. Next time you load !NetReader, the original values will still be intact. N.B. Some additional control is provided by editing some of the parameters in the !NetReader.Resources.Messages file. However, these are more for the technical reader so a full description will be left out until I produce the full printed manual. Adding your own random quotes: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Inside the !NetReader.Sigs directory is a file called "sigs". This is the file that stores all your 'fortune cookies'. You can use a normal text editor to add your own, as long as you separate each entry with a zero code. This can usually be done (in !Edit, at least) by holding down the Alt key and pressing 0 on the numeric keypad, then releasing Alt. For the technically minded, !NetReader generates a random number between 0 and the size of the "sigs" file. it then uses this number as a pointer into the file. !NetReader will then read 'backwards' until it finds a zero code and then read the quotes it finds until another zero is encountered (or the end of the file). Therefore quotes can be longer than one line, but don't have more than 80 characters on one line, or the end message may look funny. Appendix A: ~~~~~~~~~~~ Usenet message file format Message files should be in the following format (either LF or CR,LF line terminated) #! rnews 1511 Article: 36614 of alt.alien.visitors Path: cix.compulink.co.uk!uknet!miclon!xmission!charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu!psgrain!rainrgnews0!news.teleport.com!ip-pdx1-08.teleport.com!vx From: some@one.com Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 02:47:21 +1000 Lines: 19 Message-ID: <vx.1485.037EB59E@teleport.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ip-pdx1-08.teleport.com This is a test message. #! rnews 1207 Article: 36615 of alt.alien.visitors Path: cix.compulink.co.uk!uknet!miclon!xmission!charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu!psgrain!rainrgnews0!news.teleport.com!ip-pdx1-08.teleport.com!vx From: any@one.com Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors Subject: Re: Aurora, Groom Lake, and Rosewell?? Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 02:49:08 +1000 Organization: Fragile Liquid Lines: 14 Distribution: world Message-ID: <vx.1486.03805910@teleport.com> References: <391k9l$dde@usenetp1.news.prodigy.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ip-pdx1-08.teleport.com Another test message. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Future Enhancements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This version is only a beta test version, so I hope to add lots more features as and when I get the time (and people give me feedback). To save duplicating requests, I have already planned the following improvements:- - Archiving of the saved messages file. - The ability to drag and mark more than one line to quote in replies. - More intelligent handling of replies, for example the facility to forward to more than one newsgroup and controlling replies via Followup-To: header line. - An 'edit header' window to allow uses to customise the header info. - A number of other features that I will probably only think up when I start to use !NetReader for my own use. Limitations ~~~~~~~~~~~ Currently, !NetReader is restricted to the following limits. This should be ok for the time being, but I may re-arrange the memory management routines depending upon continued usage. Maximum number of lines in a single reply: 255 Maximum number of lines in original message(s): 1000 (Depending upon usage, I may decide to split messages longer than 1000 lines into several 'pages'. Obviously this limit may be reached quicker if you encounter any uuencoded files in the message file. Future versions may detect uuencoded files automatically and give an extract file option, rather than display the actual text, which is rather boring to read anyway!) Maximum number of messages in source file: Approx 1000 - should be enough for most users, unless you're a member of a rather lot of news groups and don't log on that often. User Comments ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you have any ideas/bug reports or general comments, please feel free to Email me via pvigay@cix.compulink.co.uk or log onto my bulletin board on (01705) 871531 (ANSI, 8N1) or post snail mail to the address given above. !NetReader is ©Paul Vigay/Digital Phenomena. Free Offer ~~~~~~~~~~ The first fifty people to register their copies get a free Digital Phenomena pen. After that, they are available at 75p each (50p for the pen and 25p for postage)