From: mbs@adastra.cvl.va.us (Michael B. Smith)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.uucp
Subject: Re: Is Grn any good?
Distribution: world
X-NewsSoftware: GRn 1.16f (10.11.92) by Mike Schwartz & Michael B. Smith
Date: 11 Oct 92 14:37:29 EDT
Organization: Well, I haven't decided on a name yet...

In article <1992Oct11.133131.2063@spuddy.uucp> spark@spuddy.uucp (Steve) writes:
> Does GRn offer threaded article selection like trn?

Like trn? Not really, but yes you have threaded article selection.

> -- what exactly DOES it offer?

I've appended portions of GRn.doc for GRn 1.16f.

> And where can I get it?

At better FTP sites all over the world.    :)

Such as wuarchive.wustl.edu, merlin.etsu.edu, ftp.ludd.se, etc.
--
  //   Michael B. Smith
\X/    mbs@adastra.cvl.va.us  -or-  uunet.uu.net!virginia.edu!adastra!mbs

                                      GRn

                               Gadtools Read News
                                  for the Amiga

                                      by

                                 Mike Schwartz
                               Michael B. Smith

================================================================================

Mike Schwartz                                         Michael B. Smith
1124 Fremont Ave.                                     P.O. Box 6791
Los Altos, CA  94024                                  Charlottesville, VA  22906

mykes@amiga0.sf-bay.org                               mbs@adastra.cvl.va.us


GRn is FreeWare.  But, if you have a desire to donate, please feel free.  :)

We've gone to a great deal of trouble to try to make sure that GRn is as usable
and bug-free as possible,  but we can't guarantee it. Use GRn at your own risk.

...

OPERATION

GRn operates in a single window, which can have two different looks to it.  The
two modes of operation are Group Mode and Article Mode.  In Group Mode, you
perform operations on newsgroups.  In Article Mode, you perform operations on
the articles in the selected newsgroup.

There is a close gadget on the window.  Use this gadget ONLY if you want to quit
without updating your .grnrc file!  The "Quit" button on the Group Mode window
is the normal method of quitting which saves updated news tree information to
your .grnrc file.

Both Group Mode and Article Mode have a Text gadget near the bottom of the
window which is used to display messages.  For Group Mode, the total number of
newsgroups, articles, and unread articles is displayed.  For Article Mode, the
article number, remaining article count, and the name of the next newsgroup is
displayed.

In Group Mode, you are presented with a list of all the newsgroups, along with
the number of articles in each newsgroup and the number of unread articles in
each newsgroup. Below this list of groups are a set of buttons, most of which
operate on the selected newsgroup.

You must select a newsgroup as the first step for any of the newsgroup related
functions (that is, click on the newsgroup name). Click once on a newsgroup to
select it and the various buttons become active as appropriate.  For example,
it doesn't make sense to be able to read a newsgroup which has no articles, so
the "Read" button will be disabled.  Double-clicking on the newsgroup is the
same as clicking once and then clicking "Read".

The buttons, their keyboard equivalents and their uses are:

        Quit            (bound to 'Q')

            Quit GRn, saving the updated article list if needed.

        Read            (bound to 'R') (requires newsgroup selection)

            Read articles in the indicated newsgroup. GRn will transfer
            to "Article Mode" (explained below).

            If there are not any articles in the indicated newsgroup,
            you will not be allowed to select "Read".

        Post            (bound to 'P') (requires newsgroup selection)

            Post an article to the indicated newsgroup.

            Your specified editor will be executed for you to enter the
            article. If you run GRn on a custom screen, you may need to
            enter LeftAmiga-M to bring the editor to the front screen.
            After you exit your editor, GRn requests you to confirm that
            you still wish to post the article. If you confirm, GRn does
            so. If not, the article is discarded. GRn also detects whether
            or not you actually changed the article. If you did not, GRn
            asks you whether to abort the posting or not.

        Catchup         (bound to 'C') (requires newsgroup selection)

            All articles for the indicated newsgroup will be marked
            as "read".

        Publish         (not bound) (requires newsgroup selection)

            Post a specified file, uuencoded and split, to the indicated
            newsgroup.

            A file requester will be presented for you to choose the desired
            file to publish.  GRn will automatically uuencode and make as
            many 500 line posts as needed to completely post the file. The
            subject line of each message will be formatted as:

                    Subject: <filename> (part x/n)

            where <filename> is the file being published, 'x' is the current
            post, and 'n' is the total number of posts required.

            Each post will have two additional lines in the following form:

                    Archive-Name: <filename>/partx
                    Submitted-By: <e-mail address>

            This is to simplify the process some archival software must use.

        Junk            (bound to 'J') (requires newsgroup selection)

            Unsubscribe to the indicated newsgroup.

            Selecting Junk will unsubscribe the user, and remove all
            reference to the newsgroup from the user's grnrc. It does
            not affect whether AmigaUUCP continues to process the
            newsgroup.

            If the gadget is clicked, GRn will ask for confirmation.
            If the keyboard is used, GRn does *not* ask for confirmation.

        Subscribe       (bound to 'S')

            Subscribe to newsgroups.

            Selecting subscribe will cause GRn to obtain the list of valid
            newsgroups for this system (for AmigaUUCP, UULib:Newsgroups;
            for C-News, UULib:News/Active; for NNTP, UULib:News/Active if
            it exists, from the server if not) and present the user with
            a list of newsgroups that may be subscribed to.

            GRn will prevent the user from subscribing to a newsgroup which
            is already subscribed.

            The user is asked to confirm the subscription prior to GRn
            actioning it.

            If the user confirms the subscription, GRn will scan the
            newsgroup for all existing articles, and add that information
            to the user's grnrc.

            To exit Subscribe Mode, click on the close button for the
            Subscribe Window, or enter ESCAPE.

        Bug Report      (bound to 'B')

            Send e-mail to "grnbugs@adastra.cvl.va.us" (GRn maintainer).

            This allows the user easy access to GRn's maintainer for the
            processing of bug reports and/or enhancements.

            The user specified mail editor will be executed to enter the
            message. If GRn is run on a custom screen, you may need to enter
            LeftAmiga-M to bring the editor to the front screen. After the
            editor has completed, GRn requests the user to confirm that the
            messages should be sent. If the user confirms, GRn then mails
            the message. If not, the messages is discarded.

            GRn also detects whether or not the user actually changed the
            message. If not, GRn asks to abort the mail.

        UUCP Bug Report (bound to 'U')

            Post a message to alt.sys.amiga.uucp.

            This simplifies the process of posting a bug report on UUCP
            to the alt.sys.amiga.uucp newsgroup.

            The user specified news editor will be executed to enter the
            article. If GRn is run on a custom screen, you may need to enter
            LeftAmiga-M to bring the editor to the front screen. After the
            editor has completed, GRn requests the user to confirm that the
            article should be posted. If the user confirms, GRn then posts
            the article. If not, the article is discarded.

            GRn also detects whether or not the user actually changed the
            article. If not, GRn asks to abort the posting.

        Save/Update GRNRC   (not bound)

            Update the user's grnrc file.

            This will take a current snapshot of the user's article and
            newsgroup tree and save it to disk.

In Article Mode, the window takes a new display format.  The list at the top
becomes a list of the articles in the selected group, including the status
(READ/UNREAD), the article number, the sender (parsed from the "From:" field
of the article header), and the subject.  This is a convenient way to browse
through the articles available to read!

There are two checkboxes below the list, named "Hide Headers" and "Hide Read
Messages".  When "Hide Headers" is checked, the browser window at the bottom
of the window will not display article headers.  When "Hide Read Messages" is
checked, the articles list will only show UNREAD articles. "Hide Read Messages"
is not yet implemented, so the box is permanently "ghosted". Following the two
checkboxes on the same line, is a "Sort by" cycle gadget for sorting the order
in which articles are presented.

These three options are maintained on a group-by-group basis. Each group can
have these options set differently.

You can sort the articles list by Number, From, or Subject fields.  This allows
you a lot of flexibility as to how the next and prev functions work.  If you
sort by Number, you read article in the order the messages were received by
UUCP.  If you sort by From, you can read all the articles by a certain person
in order.  If you sort by Subject, you can read the articles in a "thread"
fashion.

Below the checkboxes is a row of buttons. The buttons, their keyboard
equivalents and their uses are:

        Groups          (bound to 'G')

            GRn will return to Group Mode when this is selected.

        prev            (bound to 'p', 'b' and "cursor-left")

            GRn will display the prior article, if any.

            If there are no unread articles, the article displayed
            will not change.

        next            (bound to 'n' and "cursor-right")

            GRn will display the next article, if any.

            If there are no unread articles, the article displayed
            will not change.

        unread          (bound to 'u')

            GRn will display the next unread article, according to
            the newsgroup's specified sort sequence.

            If there are no unread articles, the article displayed
            will not change.

        thread          (bound to 't')

            GRn will display the first unread article in the next
            thread which has unread articles (threading is controlled
            by "References:" lines in the article header).

            If no thread has unread articles, the article displayed
            will not change.

        Next Group      (bound to 'N')

            GRn will change the current group to the next group which
            has unread articles. If there are no groups with unread
            articles, GRn changes the current group to the next group
            in the user's newsgroup list. If there is only one group
            in the user's newsgroup list, GRn doesn't do anything.

            If there are any unread articles in the new newsgroup,
            GRn will display the first unread article according to
            the newsgroup's sort sequence.

            If there are no unread articles in the new newsgroup,
            GRn will display the last article in the newsgroup.

        Prev Group      (bound to 'P')

            GRn will change the current group to the previous group
            in the newsgroup list.

            If there are any unread articles in the new newsgroup,
            GRn will display the first unread article according to
            the newsgroup's sort sequence.

            If there are no unread articles in the new newsgroup,
            GRn will display the last article in the newsgroup.


Below these buttons are three text gadgets used to display the From:,
Organization:, and Subject:  fields from the selected article.  When the "Hide
Headers" option is selected, this is typically the header information that you'd
care about, anyhow.  But if you want to see other information in the headers,
you always can with the click of the mouse...  I like the Hide Headers feature,
because you will more often than not be able to see entire articles in the
browser window this way.

Below the text gadgets is the article browser window.  This window will contain
the text (with or without headers) of the selected article.  You have a choice
of using the Mouse to scroll this window or to use the keyboard cursor keys.
Unfortunately, one of the oversights in GadTools.library is that there is no way
to tell how the user has used the mouse to scroll the ListView, so intermixing
can be a bit confusing - but it does work as well as possible. The space bar
will cause the window to move down one page. The backspace key will cause the
window to move up one page. Cursor-down, as well as enter, will cause the
window to move down one line. Cursor-up will cause the window to move up one
line. Shift-cursor-up moves the window to the top of the article. Shift-cursor-
down moves the window to the bottom of the article.

Below the browser window is another row of buttons that operate on the
currently selected article. The buttons, their keyboard equivalents and their
uses are:

        Save            (bound to 'S')

            Save the current article to a file.

            GRn will present a filerequester so that the user may select
            the filename to save the article to.

            If the file currently exists, GRn will append the current
            article to the end of the existing file.

        Reply           (bound to 'R')

            Reply to the current article via e-mail.

            The user is asked whether to include the text of the current
            article in the reply.

            The user specified mail editor will be executed to enter the
            message. If GRn is run on a custom screen, you may need to enter
            LeftAmiga-M to bring the editor to the front screen. After the
            editor has completed, GRn requests the user to confirm that the
            messages should be sent. If the user confirms, GRn then mails
            the message. If not, the messages is discarded.

            GRn also detects whether or not the user actually changed the
            message. If not, GRn asks to abort the mail.

        Forward         (not bound)

            Forward this article via e-mail.

            GRn prepends an "ORIGINALLY FROM" line to the article prior
            to calling the user's mail editor. Headers from the message
            are not included.

            The user specified mail editor will be executed to enter the
            message. If GRn is run on a custom screen, you may need to enter
            LeftAmiga-M to bring the editor to the front screen. After the
            editor has completed, GRn requests the user to confirm that the
            messages should be sent. If the user confirms, GRn then mails
            the message. If not, the messages is discarded.

            GRn also detects whether or not the user actually changed the
            message. If not, GRn asks to abort the mail.

        Followup        (bound to 'F')

            Post a follow-up article to the current article.

            The user is asked whether to include the text of the current
            article in the followup.

            The user specified news editor will be executed to enter the
            article. If GRn is run on a custom screen, you may need to enter
            LeftAmiga-M to bring the editor to the front screen. After the
            editor has completed, GRn requests the user to confirm that the
            article should be posted. If the user confirms, GRn then posts
            the article. If not, the article is discarded.

            GRn also detects whether or not the user actually changed the
            article. If not, GRn asks to abort the posting.

        Post            (not bound)

            Post a new message in the current newsgroup.

            The user specified news editor will be executed to enter the
            article. If GRn is run on a custom screen, you may need to enter
            LeftAmiga-M to bring the editor to the front screen. After the
            editor has completed, GRn requests the user to confirm that the
            article should be posted. If the user confirms, GRn then posts
            the article. If not, the article is discarded.

            GRn also detects whether or not the user actually changed the
            article. If not, GRn asks to abort the posting.

        Print           (not bound)

            Print the current article on PRT:.

            GRn will attempt to open PRT: and write the current article to
            that device. GRn sends a formfeed after all of the article has
            been printed.

        Cancel          (bound to 'D' [for Delete])

            Submit a Cancel control message for the current article.

            Use with care! GRn will build a control message, based on the
            header information in the current article, that will cause
            C-News sites to cancel the article.

            The user is asked to confirm (twice) this action, prior to
            GRn performing the operation.

            AmigaUUCP ignores control messages.