
DNRead.Cmd
v. 1.29
26 January 1998
Eric Walker
High Boskage House


Quick And Dirty Instructions:
-----------------------------

You really ought to read the full DOCfile, you know.  If you get
snagged by something explained there but not here, be supplied with a
very small thimble to hold my sympathy.  But if you fancy yourself the
sort of "Power User" for whom manuals are only an insult, so be it.


INSTALLING IT:
---------------

Pick a directory--any directory, anywhere; better yet, make a new one. 
Put everything you got in this package in it.  

Get the RxSock DLL package.  Put the RxSock DLL in the same directory.

Make two subdirectories off the original; name one GROUPS and the 
other LOADS.  Move the two files with a .DNR extension from the parent
directory into the GROUPS directory.

Use a text editor and look into the file DNREAD.CNF; edit whatever you
like in whatever way you like--there are explanations in that file.

Use a text editor and look into the file DNREAD.SIG--change it so that
it is what you want appended as a signature block to any posts you 
make (it's wise to leave the first line as a blank one).

You're done.



STARTING IT:
------------

Get connected to the net (can't do much otherwise).

Start the command file (DNREAD.CMD) in its own text-mode session. 
You can use a Batch job, a Rexx script, or your fingers on the 
keyboard--your choice.

By keyboard, from any window that gives you access to an OS/2 command 
line issue the command--

        START "Deja News Reader" /win /fg /c DNREAD.CMD

If you like, you can use something else for the words in quotation 
marks; whatever you use will be what shows up in the Task List.

But: 

IMPORTANT!  IMPORTANT!  IMPORTANT!  IMPORTANT!  IMPORTANT!  IMPORTANT!
======================================================================

   Be *SURE* to start the session from DNReader's home directory!

======================================================================
IMPORTANT!  IMPORTANT!  IMPORTANT!  IMPORTANT!  IMPORTANT!  IMPORTANT!

Get the idea?



USING IT:
---------

On each and every screen needing you to do something, you can get a
list of everything you can do by pressing the <F1> key; it brings up a
full-screen overlay listing all the valid keys and what they do.  
USE IT!  

(Actually, there's an exception: the Search-set screen, which already
has all the appropriate information on it.)

Now, unless you are a world-class gun-jumper and have made your own
DNR files already, the first working screen you get to after the
startup stuff will have three choices:  Search, OS/2, and Baseball.
Ignore Search for now.

The other two choices are "interest clusters": arbitrary clusterings 
of news groups with a common theme.  Read the full DOCfile for 
details, but each cluster corresponds to one DNR file in the GROUPS 
directory.  Whenever you want, you can make up your own clusters by 
creating and editing whatever.DNR files; these two are just samples.

Pick one or the other by the deeply complex process of pressing the 
indicated corresponding letter key on the keyboard (you knew that).

Next you'll see all the newsgroups listed in the DNR file as belonging
to the interest cluster you selected.  Pick a specific newsgroup (can
you figure out how?).

Now, for the first time, DNR actually goes out and fetches something 
off the net from Deja News.  What it fetches is the list of articles 
in that newsgroup dating within the "lookback period" you saw set in 
the CNF configuration file (the default is seven days).

Actually, that's a half-truth; what it fetches, because that's all
Deja News will give it, is that list UP TO a max of 100 articles.  If
there are more in the lookback-current list, you'll need to get them
separately, but at least now you'll have the first 100 (in reverse
chronological order).  Look--always--at the top and bottom status 
lines; they'll tell you where you are in what.

Any article shown in bright text with a selection letter available is 
a readable article; the others (in dim text) are references supplied 
by Deja News to help clarify the context of the readable articles.

Amazingly, you select an article by pressing the corresponding 
keyboard letter key.  Wow.  Then it downloads and you read it.

When you're through with an article, or with any selection screen, you
exit with the universally popular <Esc> key.  Bang it enough and 
you'll back right out of the program (except that it will nicely ask 
you for confirmation before actually putting up the shutters).

You can initiate a NEW post (not a reply to an extant article) from 
the articles-selection screen for any group.  But it's while reading 
articles that you get to do much of the really neat stuff.  The way 
you get to do neat stuff is by pressing some Alt-key combo, where the 
specific key is, hopefully, mnemonic for the specific neat thing.

The neat things available are:

  Alt-F :  go forward to the next article (as listed by Deja News)
  Alt-B :  go back to the previous article (as listed by Deja News)
  Alt-H :  display the article header
  Alt-A :  get a dossier on the author of the message [TRY THIS!]
  Alt-T :  grab the article thread (downloads a new article list)
  Alt-S :  save the article (with header) to a named file
  Alt-R :  post a reply to this message
  Alt-P :  post a new message to this news group

If you Alt-T for the thread, it's much like getting the articles list 
for a group, except that the list will--usually--be fairly short.  You
work with the thread list just like a group-articles list.  When you 
bang the <Esc> key enough, you end up back at the articles list for 
the group you were reading.

DNR actually saves everything it downloads to disk, and doesn't erase 
it until the next time it starts up (and then only with your 
permission).  All its work is in the LOADS directory, and you can go 
in afterwards and look over anything you got.  But if you want to save
a specific article to a specific name in some specific directory, you 
use the Alt-S feature.  (The files in LOADS have semi-cryptic names, 
plus the headers and body texts are stored separately.)

Posting is fairly simple.  If you're creating a new thread via Alt-P, 
you will be prompted for a Subject line, then taken to the editor of
your choice; for an Alt-R reply, you will get directly to the editor.
In each case, you will find some text pre-set in your editor: for new 
posts, the subject is repeated as a heading, while for replies the 
entire source article is quoted for you, with some additional stuff 
(you'll see).

Either way, for pity's sake, use your head.  That thing you're using
is an EDITOR; use it to edit.  Especially when replying, don't
mindlessly repeat every byte in the original message:  use [snip]
generously and just leave enough there to fairly characterize what
you're replying to and allow a newcomer reading only your message to
understand the dialogue.  Few things are more tedious (and wrath-
provoking) than messages containing three levels of fully quoted
predecessor articles, complete with long and usually inane (and
certainly meaningless in the context) signature blocks.

New postings are directed only to the single news group in which you
create them; no cross-posting facility exists yet in DNR (which may be
a good thing).  Reply postings are automatically directed to the same
set of groups as was the article to which you are replying.

Do NOT sign your posts within the editor.  DNR will automatically 
append the contents of the DNREAD.SIG file to every post you make.
(You DID customize that file, didn't you Captain Nemo?)

OK, now about searches.  (You recall--the first "cluster" listed.)
You select Search, you enter search phrases guided by your interests 
and the rules on the screen, you press the <Enter> key, and DNR nicely
sends your query off to Deja News, which responds with a list of 
articles, from ALL groups it carries, that contain your phrases as
interpreted the way the listed search rules state.  OK?

You treat a returned search hit list like a group articles list (and 
it too may exceed 100 articles and so be set forth in multiple 
blocks).  You can deal with a Search'ed article just like any in a 
group--the same neat Alt-key things work.

If you find the various available search-operator descriptions 
cryptic, use your browser and visit the Deja News site; click there on
"Power Search" and then on the various help links from Power Search.

Deja News is, as you might suspect, at--

       http://www.dejanews.com/


The end.
