xwafenews(1)

NAME

xwafenews - an x-based NNTP news reader

SYNOPSIS

xwafenews [-c colormode] [-3] [-C] [-f name of newsrc file] [-h] [-N NNTP server] [-p print command] [-s name of signature file]

DESCRIPTION

xwafenews is an x-based news reader which accesses a remote news server via NNTP (net news transfer protocol). xwafenews is a wafe application (see manual page wafeapp) written in Perl. In short, xwafenews allows a user to subscribe to newsgroups, to read news, to reply to the author, to forward articles to other people via mail, to post followup articles or to start new discussion threads, to save and to print articles.

OPTIONS

In addition to the standard toolkit options such as -display, -name, -geometry, -iconic, -xrm etc. (see manual page X) xwafenews accepts the following options:

-c colormode
    start xwafenews using the given color-mode (for details see manual page wafeapp); color modes are for example mono, blueish or wheat-ish.

-3  do not use 3 dimensional widgets. This option depends of the configuration in the system.waferc file (see manual page wafeapp).

-C  prefer files for the communication between front end and application program. This option can reduce the memory consumption, but increases disk-IO and might lead to locking problems.

-f name of newsrc file
    use an alternate newsrc file. Per default .newsrc in the login directory of the current user is used.

-h  show a short usage message.

-N NNTP server]
    use an non-default NNTP server. Ask you network administrator for advice. If -N is specified and the -f option was not used, the name of the specified NNTP server is appended to the standard newsrc file name.

-p print command
    specify a non-default print command (for example: 'mp -a | lpr -Pmyps') the quotes are NOT optional.

-s name of signature file
    use a non-default signature file. In the configuration of the distribution the name of the signature file is $HOME/.elm/signature. The signature file is appended to postings, forwarded articles or replies. A stupid example: -s $HOME/.login.

LAYOUT and INTERACTION

When xwafenews is started the user will see an X front end with three main sections: these sections are (from top to bottom): the group section, the subject section and the article section. The top most line of the application is an information line, where the user is informed about the actions the program takes. The group section has a header part and a larger window containing names of newsgroups and information about its contents. In the header part of the group section the Groups and the Sort menu are located, which can be activated by pressing the left mouse button on the bold label. If all available newsgroups are chosen from the Groups menu the operation will slow down. The Grep field can be used to restrict the group listing to matching lines. The Config button may be used to change certain settings (such as print command) for a single session. Newsgroups may be selected with the middle mouse button. Once newsgroup are selected, the buttons subscribe-first, subscribe-last and unsubscribe will become sensitive. By pressing the left mouse button in a line of the groups listing, the newsgroup is opened and article-numbers, authors, length of article (when specified in the Lines: field) and the subject line are displayed in the second section of the application. The button save-newsrc can be used to save the current state of the newsrc. Articles, which are not in the newsrc file (see also option -f) will be marked with "(new)" in the group listing. If a new newsgroup is opened, it will be automatically subscribed. If the program is terminated without opening a new newsgroup it will be treated as unsubscribed. When the newsrc file does not exist, a new newsrc file is created, the user is subscribed automatically to the newsgroups "news.announce.newusers", "news.announce.important" and "news.newusers.questions". The subject section contains information about the current selected newsgroup. This section also has a header part and a list part. The header part contains the Articles and the Sort menu. In the Articles menu the user can choose whether he/she wants to see unread articles, recent articles (i.e. 100 newest articles, if available) or all articles. In the sort menu it is possible to choose between chronological order or alphabetic order of the subject lines. The latter mode is useful for example for saving multi part (binary) postings. The Grep field can be used to restrict the subject listing to matching lines. Note that differently to the Grep field in the group section an incremental grep is used here. Under the Grep field the buttons catchup, save, mark and thread are located. The catchup button can be used to mark all articles in the current newsgroup as read. In the subject linsting the middle mouse button (Btn2) can be used to select one or several subject lines. As soon as subject lines are selected the buttons save and mark become sensitive. If articles are selected and the save button is pressed (or the character "s" is typed in the window containing the subject listing), a save window pops up. If cancel is pressed with the left mouse button, nothing is saved and the dialog window pops down. If nothing is typed in the dialog window and the return key is pressed, the selected articles will be saved in the $HOME/News directory and appended to a file with the name of the current news group. If a name is specified, which does not start with "~", "/" or "|", the selected articles will be saved in the $HOME/News/ directory under the given name. If the name starts with "~" or "/", the name will be interpreted as a full path name. If the name starts with "|" the name will be interpreted as a pipe. Note that the folders generated by saving articles may be read using the program xwafemail. The mark button can be used to mark read articles as unread (or vice versa). The articles to be marked can be selected using the middle mouse button.Alternatively to the mark button the key 'm' can be used in the subject box. If the left mouse button is pressed in a line of the subject listing, the article is retrieved from the NNTP server and displayed in the article window. The cursor keys up and down may be used to read the next or previous article by scrolling the listing one line up or down and reading the article under the mouse cursor. If an article is displayed the thread button may be used to display only the articles to which the current article refers (marked by "<" and the articles which are referring to the current articles (marked by ">"). If the right mous button (Btn3) is pressed in the subject listing, the thread mode is terminated and the full subject listing is displayed again. The article section displays the current article. The bottom line of the application contains several buttons. The quit button terminates xwafenews AND updates the newsrc file (see also -f option). abort is used to terminate without saving or to abort writing of an article or mail. post is used to post an article to the current news group, followup is used to post an article as a response to the current article adressed to the current newsgroup. The reply button allows to send mail to the author of the current article, forward is used to forward the current article via mail to another user. post, followup, reply and forward may be terminated by the send button or aborted by abort. The header button shows/hides the full header of an article, print (save) can be used to print (or save) the current article. For alias resolving see the manual page of xwafemail.

NNTP HOST

Resolving rules for determining the NNTP-server: (a) command line option -N, (b) $defaultNntpHost from system.waferc, (c) environment variable NNTPSERVER, (d) contents of the file "/usr/local/lib/news/nntpserver".

KEY BINDINGS
Key bindings in group listing:

<Btn1>
    read newsgroup

<Btn2>
    select newsgroups

<Key>f
    subscribe to selected newsgroups on top of the listing

<Key>l
    subscribe to selected newsgroups on bottom of the listing

<Key>u
    unsubscribe from selected newsgroups

Key bindings in subject listing:

<Btn1>
    read article

<Btn2>
    select articles

<Btn3>
    refresh subject listing (terminates thread)

<Key>Up
    read previous article

<Key>Down
    read next article

<Key>Prior
    previous page

<Key>Next
    next page

<Key>c
    mark all articles in current newsgroup as read and leave newsgroup

<Key>m
    mark selected articles

<Key>s
    save selected articles

<Key>t
    display thread of current article

<Key>u
    unsubscribe from current newsgroup

Key bindings in article text:

Ctrl<Key>f
    use a fixed spaced font

Ctrl<Key>q
    reflow text

Ctrl<Key>v
    use a variable spaced font

Ctrl<Key>w
    set read-only buffer writable (useful in combination with Ctrl<Key>q to reflow text that does not fit in the current line with)

Key bindings on buttons in the bottom button row:

<Btn3>
    clicking <Btn3> on <reply> or <forward> send urgent mail

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

WAFELIB
    location of the wafe library (typically /usr/lib/X11/wafe)

NNTPSERVER
    name of the NNTP server (see section NNTP host above)

HOME
    login directory of the current user

HOST
    fully qualified host name (including domain)

USER
    login name of the current user

TMPDIR
    directory for temporary files. If not specified, /tmp is used

PERL VARIABLES

Wafe (Perl-) Variables from $WAFELIB/system.waferc or $HOME/.waferc:

$boldFont
    typically used for bold labels

$normalFont
    typically used for labels or proportional text

$buttonFont
    typically used as font for buttons

$textFont
    fixed spaced text font

$buttonAtts
    attributes used for buttons

$backGround
    back ground color

$highLight
    attributes for emphasized text portions (typically colors)

$roColors
    attributes for non emphasized text (typically colors)

$infoColors
    attributes of the info line (typically colors)

$menueAtts
    attributes of pull down menues (typically colors)

%textResources
    default resources for text widgets

@textActions
    default actions for text widgets

$mailIncludePrefix
    prefix for included text-portions for reply or followups

$signatureFile
    full path leading to the signature file

$printCommand
    command used to print articles

$elmAliases
    full path leading to an alias file used to resolve addresses in outgoing mails.

$defaultNntpHost
    name of the default NNTP host (see section NNTP host above)

$defaultNntpOrganization
    name used for the organization for outgoing postings

$defaultNntpDistribution
    default distribution for outgoing postings

$defaultMailHost
    default mail host, if no alias exists and no host address is given

$defaultMailEncoding
    default encoding for sending mail default is Mime, possible values are (TeX, Swe, Mime, None)

FILES

    $HOME/News
    $HOME/Mail
    $HOME/.elm/signature
    $HOME/.elm/aliases.text
    /usr/local/lib/news/nntpserver
    $WAFELIB/system.waferc
    $HOME/.waferc

SEE ALSO

wafe(n), wafeapp(n), X(1), xwafemail(n), xwafenews(n), xwafeftp(n), xwafeora(n), xwafetel(n), xdirtree(n), xdirtree(n), xprojektor(n), xbm(n), xwafemc(n), xruptimes(n), xnetstats(n), xiostats(n), xvmstats(n), xwafeping(n), xwafecf(n)

COPYRIGHT

 Copyright (C) 1992 by Gustaf Neumann, Stefan Nusser
        Wirtschaftsuniversitaet Wien,
        Abteilung fuer Wirtschaftsinformatik
        Augasse 2-6,
        A-1090 Vienna, Austria
        neumann@wu-wien.ac.at, nusser@wu-wien.ac.at
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appears in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all supporting documentation. This software is provided "as is" without expressed or implied warranty.

AUTHORS

Gustaf Neumann, Stefan Nusser