Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mjbtn!raider!elgamy!elg
From: elg@elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM (Eric Lee Green)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: SENDSYS
Message-ID: <00668200458@elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM>
Date: 5 Mar 91 19:14:18 GMT
Organization: Eric's Amiga 2000 @ Home
Lines: 25

I am currently re-writing much of the CNEWS /bin/sh code into AREXX (Amiga
REXX, the standard script language of AmigaDOS 2.0). For the most part this
is simple, since REXX is more powerful than /bin/sh (for example, the
batcher ended up MUCH smaller and faster than the /bin/sh version, while
retaining all its power and configurability), but some of the control
messages are driving me crazy because I simply don't know enough about
netnews. E.g., SENDSYS. What the heck? The shell script is simple enough --
it just ships the SYS file out to the requester -- but what's the point of
all of this? Is this part of some automated widget that I haven't run
across yet in my (admittedly incomplete) browsings of the CNEWS source?

The real killer will be "inews". My code is currently just whipping up the
appropriate headers and tacking them onto my postings. It does none of
the fancy censorship etc. stuff of Unix "inews". Before I release my code
to the public, I'm going to have to do something about that. Not that it
really matters -- since the Amiga has no protection mechanisms, if someone
wanted to bypass the censor, all they have to do is change the article in
the spool directory and change its size in the batcher's input file.
Hopefully, though, most people won't know how to do things like that. (On
the other hand, neither did I, a month ago).

--
Eric Lee Green   (318) 984-1820  P.O. Box 92191  Lafayette, LA 70509
elg@elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM               uunet!mjbtn!raider!elgamy!elg
 Looking for a job... tips, leads appreciated... inquire within...