From: udo@umunk.GUN.de (Udo Munk)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Distribution: world
Subject: Informations for the newsreader vn
Organization: none
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 92 14:01:50 +0100

I have got this mail from tronix.signalpath.on.ca!louis (Louis Bertrand):

> I am not familiar with the vn newsreader.  Could you post
> a description of it, and its features?
> Danke
>  -- Louis

Here are some interesting parts of the online manual of vn, i hope
you get enough informations out of it. I think the hole manual is too
large, to post here.


     Vn	is  a news  reader which uses  the same	 .newsrc  file as
     readnews (1), but displays	and interacts differently.  It is
     aimed  at allowing	 you to	 rapidly scan  a large	number of
     newsgroups,  looking for  something you  want to  read.  The
     major  premise is	that you  will be  interested in  a small
     number of	articles, but will be  interested in keeping tabs
     on	a large	 number	of newsgroups which may	contain	something
     interesting from  time to time.  It also  has the ability to
     unpackage digests.
...
...
     Vn	supports  the -n, -x and -t  options of	readnews (specify
     newsgroup,	 read  all  articles,  and  specify  title).   In
     addition, there  some other options: -U, -S,  -%, -w, -t and
     some  options beginning  with +.	The  "+" options  are not
     recognized	 within	the  .newsrc  file, only  on the  command
     line, and are intended for	use in environments with multiple
     NNTP installations.   If you are not  using an NNTP version,
     or	only  have one news installation  accessible from a given
     machine, they are probably	of little use.

     The -w (writer or author) option which works like -t, but is
     a search  string to apply	to the "From"  header line rather
     than the  subject.	 In the	-n, -t and  -w options,	a leading
     "!" on  the string	is  taken to mean negation.   The rest of
     the  string  is  a	regular	 expression  for  the  -w and  -t
     options.

     For example:

     -n	net.dogs -w !fred -t [Bb]eagle

     Selects  articles	in  net.dogs  about  beagles  written  by
     somebody  other  than  fred.   Multiple  -w -t  options  are
     treated as	follows:

	  If  the article  satisfies  any of  the negations,  you
	  won't	see it,	regardless of the non-negated options.

	  Multiple  -w	options	 are  logically	"or'ed",  as  are
	  multiple -t's.

	  If both -w and -t are	present, the article is	seen only

	  if it	 satisfies at least one	of the	-w's and at least
	  one of the -t's, i.e.	the results of the logical "or's"
	  of  the -t's	and  of	the  -w's  are logically  "anded"
	  together.

     The -n options  allow the "all" convention, replacing ".all"
     by	 ".*"  before using  the  regular  expression calls.   -n
     options are processed in the order	given so that subsequent,
     more  specific,  -n's  may	 partially  undo  the  effect  of
     previous  "alls".	 Note that  the	 -n  option treatment  is
     slightly  different than the  readnews treatment  which says
     that   "foo"    implies   "foo.all".    Vn	   accepts   this
     incompatibility to	 allow you an  easier way of  saying JUST
     "foo" without any of its subgroups.

     The -S option is  useful in conjunction with command line -n
     options.  It  is really not useful	in  the	.newsrc	file, but
     existed before the	"+" options were added.	 For command line
     -n	 options, the  "!"  unsubscriptions in	.newsrc	are  also
     ignored.	This  allows  you  to override	all  subscription
     information by  command line specification.   -S will modify
     this behavior.  If	you use	an -S option on	the command line,
     the "!" unsubscriptions will still	be used.

     The  -% option  initially	gives you  the results	of a  "%"
     command, rather  than the page for	 the first newsgroup (see
     below).   This  allows   you  to  see  what  newsgroups  are
     available before viewing any.

     The -U  option says that  when your .newsrc  file is updated
     via answering  "yes" to  the update  query	on exit	 or using
     control-W,	newsgroups marked with "!" are to be updated too.
     Normally, these groups  are left alone, i.e. updated only to
     the number	 that was already in your  .newsrc, or the lowest
     article number still around.  You may get flooded should you
     decide to	resubscribe.  If  you don't like  this treatment,
     use -U.   Then, control-W	and "yes"  to the update  on exit
     will update your  unsubscribed newsgroups to the most recent
     article.
...
Please not, that i have not ported the NNTP stuff.
...
			Command	Menu For Page:

     [...] = effect of optional	number preceding command
     pipes are specified by filenames beginning	with |
     articles specified	as a list of numbers, title search string, or
	     * to specify marked articles.  ! may be used to negate any

	      q	- quit
	      k	- (or up arrow)	move up	[number	of lines]
	      j	- (or down arrow) move down [number of lines]
      <back sp>	- (or left arrow) previous page	[number	of pages]
       <return>	- (or right arrow) next	page [number of	pages]
	      >	- next newsgroup [number of newsgroups]
	      <	- previous newsgroup [number of	newsgroups]
	      d	- unpack digest
	      H	- top of page
	      L	- bottom of page
	      G	- bottom of page (alternate L)
	      M	- middle of page
	      d	- unpack digest
	      r	- read article [number of articles]
	<space>	- read article (alternate 'r')
	      R	- read all articles on page
      control-r	- specify articles to read
	      s	- save or pipe article [number of articles]
	      S	- save or pipe all articles on page
      control-s	- specify articles to save
      control-t	- specify articles to save (alternate ctl-s)
	      p	- print	article	[number	of articles]
	      P	- print	all article on page
      control-p	- specify articles to print
	      w	- update .newsrc status	to cursor
	      W	- update .newsrc status	for whole newsgroup
      control-w	- update .newsrc status	for all	pages displayed
	      o	- recover original .newsrc status for newsgroup
	      O	- recover all original .newsrc status
	      #	- display count	of groups and pages - shown and	total
	      %	- list newsgroups with new article, updated counts
	      n	- specify newsgroup to display and/or resubscribe to
	      u	- unsubscribe from group
	      x	- mark/unmark article [number of articles]
	      *	- mark/unmark article [number of articles]
	      X	- erase	marks on articles
      control-x	- specify articles to mark
	      h	- toggle flag for display of headers when reading
	      z	- toggle ROT13 mode for	reading
     <formfeed>	- redraw screen
	      !	- escape to UNIX to execute a command
	      "	- show vn version
	      ?	- show this help menu
...
...
     For replying and posting followups, you will be placed in an
     editor to create the  reply or article.  The article will be
     included in the file you are editing, marked with "> "'s for
     excerpting	 in your  reply	or  followup.  After  exiting the
     editor you	are prompted to	 make sure you still want to post
     or	reply.

     For followups, your article is appended to	"author_copy" for
     future reference.	(See CCFILE in the section on ENVIRONMENT
     VARIABLES).

     Header lines for the mailer / news	poster are present in the
     file you are editing  to allow you	to modify them.	 Remember
     to	 leave a  blank	line  between the  header lines	 and your
     text.  It may be OK if you	don't, but why tempt fate.
...
...
			     Reading menu:

	      n	- next article,	if any
	      q	- quit reading articles, if any	more to	read
	      Q	- quit reading,	and turn to next page of articles
	      r	- rewind article to beginning
       <return>	- next line
	      /	- search for a pattern in the article
	      m	- send mail to author of article
	      f	- post followup	to article
	      s	- save article in a file
	      p	- send article to the printer
	      ?	- see this help	menu
	      z	- toggle rotation flag
	      h	- toggle header	suppression flag

      anything else to continue	normal reading

     When  articles  are  saved	 from  anywhere,  a  few  special
     conventions apply.

     If	the  name begins with  "|", you	are specifying	a pipe to
     feed  the	article(s)  to,	rather	than  a	 file.	No  other
     interpretation is done in this case.
...
...
     If	you don't like the choice of command keys, you may change
     them (default  choices - basic control  in	article	reader is
     ala   more	  of  course,  the  "j"	 and   "k"  on	the  page
     presentation  are	vi  convention,	other  page  commands are
     somewhat  readnews	 compatible).  If  you have a  file named
     .vnkey  in	your  home directory  this file	 will be  read in
     order  to	obtain	keystroke  translation.	  The  format  is
     simple:

     Each line begins with  R or P indicating translation for the
     reader  interaction,  or  the  page  interaction  (r  and	p
     accepted  also).	Following  the R  or  P	 is a  character,
     followed  by an  "=",  followed by	 another character.   The
     character on  the left hand side of the  equals sign is what
     you wish to input,	and  the character on the right	hand side
     of	the equals sign	is what	 you wish to translate it to.  No
     embedded spaces  are allowed.  Lines not  beginning with the
     proper  characters	 are simply  ignored,  as are  characters
     following the translated character.  Eg:

	  Pd=j
	  Pu=k
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