Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rice!uw-beaver!entropy!dataio!pilchuck!jgray
From: jgray@Data-IO.COM (Jerry Late Nite Gray)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: PC-RN (Read News)
Summary: I have created a PC news reader that I find usefull.
Message-ID: <1474@pilchuck.Data-IO.COM>
Date: 4 Jul 90 04:06:29 GMT
References: <7759@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> <1990Jun30.222452.5444@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: Data I/O Corporation; Redmond, WA
Lines: 51

In article <1990Jun30.222452.5444@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes:
> In article <7759@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> frush@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu (Raymond Frush) writes:
> >I am looking for sources/executables for "rn" for DOS.  The environment that I
> >have includes a PC with an EtherNet card, and a large UNIX based network 
> >including a News server.  I have heard that such a beast exists out there, I
> >just have no idea where to begin looking.
> >
> So am I. I have asked this question several times now, with no success.
> 

Howdy,

	Since thar be at least two people in the world who may be interested
in it, I thought I'd mention that I wrote a news reader about a year ago in
my spare time. We have a PC-NFS based ethernet system here at the Data I/O
ranch and I wanted to give a few deserving folks (with PC only access) a chance
to get aquainted with the USENET watering hole.

	It is a "reader" only which suits me 99.9% of the time (I had to
mosey on over to at real machine to post this) but when I finish adding all of
the really important features I'll get around to a posting function. I wouldn't
mind getting a little advice on how to do this, by the way.

	The reader has a few limitations due to having not yet purchased the
interface library to PC-NFS. Those not familiar with PC-NFS need to be informed
that file and directory names (topics/nets) get mangled into unique DOS
compatible 8 character names. This only affects maybe 5% of the topic names
and the ones mangled are usually easy to figure out. It also means that it
can't make use of the ".newsrc" file compatibly with other readers (so
it uses its own "PCNEWSRC.DAT" file somewhere on the path).

	Besides designing it to be easy to use by the uninitiated, there were
a few features I've always wanted in a news reader.  The few other news
packages I've used provide little or no help at viewing WHAT topics
are available. This one allows traversing the newgroup directories which 
effectively allows you to browse the newsgroup names.  Since I am an
frequent reader of comp.binaries.ibm.pc  I built in a sequential file save
feature which makes the acquiring of new PC stuff simple and easy (especially
with Richard Marks version of uudecode) for those pesky multi-part postings.

	Is anyone out there (other than the above two persons) interested in
my posting the executables only (with the little necessary documentation)? I
am not interested in posting sources until several other significant features
are added and the beast is in a state I would call "finished" (which could
take a long time.... months if not years).  I have absolutely no interest
in any commercial aspect of this and the executables would be free to use by
anyone for any purpose. Heck... I don't even believe in patents. 


			Jerrold L. Gray
			jgray@pilchuck