From: peter@psychnet.psychol.utas.edu.au (Peter R. Tattam)
Subject: Re: DOS based newsreaders?
Organization: Psychology Department, University of Tasmania
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 05:59:17 GMT

In article <1992Apr01.201400.15445@norton.com> stevec@norton.com (Steve Cundall) writes:
>--
>At our company, we really only have DOS machines hooked up to a Novell
>network. I have managed to provide users with a way to get to Internet
>mail using an SMTP mail gateway to our DOS based mail system. My next
>problem was how to allow users to read news from their DOS stations. I
>want to try to do this without any changes on the user side (ie, I want
>to try to avoid putting packet drivers on the stations and giving
>everyone IP addresses).

>One solution I thought might be possible, is to use Netware for NFS and
>put the /usr/spool/news directory over on the Netware file server using
>NFS and then have the DOS users login into that server and read the
>news. I have two problems with this approach and they are: 1> I need
>a completely DOS based news reader that could use the directory structure
>on the NFS file system to read the news 2> The second minor problem is that
>the names of the directories (the newsgroups) get truncated to 8 characters
>on the DOS side. This presents a problem for news groups like 'programming'.
>I think if I can resolve these two problems, I can make this idea work.

>The only other possiblity I can think of, is to batch the news to a
>completely DOS based unbatching and filing system for the news. I
>don't know if such a thing even exists.

>I would appreciate any suggestions that people have for a solution to
>this problem.

>Thanks in advance.

>Steve

OK.... Here's where some discussion might be needed.

I suppose that trumpet could be altered to operate from spool directories as 
well as the normal NNTP sessions.  I have already been thinking about such a 
system for archiving news articles within trumpet.

My thoughts are :

1. Have a completely flat archive structure.  One archive file per newsgroup 
with the name of the newsgroup stored internally.  The external name would 
be unrelated to the newsgroup name.  

Advantages:
	file path length fairly small
	number of files same as number of groups (important on file servers 
	with limited number of directory entries)
disadvantages:
	no hierachical structure visible outside program.
	deletion of articles more complex.
	difficulty mapping to already existing systems.

2.  Have a hierachical structure with the full name and other info stored in 
a standard file within the directory.  Each sub-level of the news hierachy 
would be truncated to 8 characters.

Advantages:
	can use existing spooled news systems with the addition of a 
	newsgroup title in each group. (some shell script could do this)
	easy to see the news structure outside program.
Disadvantages:
	some file servers have limited directory & file name entries.

3.  Some combination of the above. e.g. hierachical with 8 char limit on 
group name.  An archive file containing all the articles along with the full 
name of the group.  Could be managed via a script on remote systems.

What do others think?

Peter
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P.Tattam                                    International Phone 61-02-202346
Programmer, Psychology Department           Australia     Phone   002-202346
University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
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