
HL_News: A  Headline News Viewer (ver 1.0)
By Tom Fredrickson
4-21-1999


Citation:
   Headline News Viewer is based on  the  Deja News Reader  by
   Eric Walker (ftp.highboskage.com/dnreader)

   It also has some modified code taken from HTML_TXT by 
   Daniel Hellerstein 

Requirements:
   Headline News requires the following dynamic link libraries (DLL):
       REXXLIB.DLL and RXWIN30.DLL from Quercus Systems at
              http://www.quercus-sys.com/files/rexxlib.zip
       RXSOCK.DLL:  the IBM EWS RxSock library is usually installed with 
                OS/2. If you do not have a copy of RXSOCK.DLL, you  can find it at
                 ftp.ibm.com/pub/pccbbs/os2_ews/rxsock.zip
   These DLL library files must be in your LIBPATH (say, in x:\os2\dll, where
    x: is your boot drive), or in the same directory as HL_NEWS.CMD

Installation:
  a)  Copy HL_NEWS.CMD., NEWS.CFG, and  possibly the aforementioned DLLs
        to one of your applications directory.
  b)  create a LOADS and SAVE subdirectories under this directory --
       these are used for workspace.
       If you want to use diffferent names for these workspace directories,
      you can modify NEWS.CFG.


  Caution:
         The  LOADS subdirectory is subject to bulk erasal -- do NOT put anything in
         LOADS that you want to keep!


 Acknowlegements:
   *  This program  downloads a list, maintained by Derek Decker, of article
      headlines for viewing in a textmode window. You can check this list,
      at http://www.iglou.com/DeckerAutomation/news.html, with a java
      enabled  browser. 

      For more info about Decker Automation, and what Derek J Decker REALLY does,
        take a look at    http://www.cris.com/~djd

  * I must give specal thanks to Daniel Hellerstein author of HTML_TXT
     Without his help I would have probably not been able to get the text
     formatted in such a nice way.

Disclaimer:

   This is freeware that is to be used at your own risk -- the 
   author and any potentially affiliated persons disclaim all 
   responsibilties for any consequence arising from the use, misuse, or abuse 
   of this software.


Disclaimer:

   This is freeware that is to be used at your own risk -- the 
   author and any potentially affiliated persons disclaim all 
   responsibilties for any consequence arising from the use, misuse, or abuse 
   of this software .


Running Headline News:
   a)you must be online to run Headline News.
   b)check News.cfg to set some user variables 
    
      (line_len) is used to set the length of lines displayed the default is 78.

      (Hi_asc) is used used to turn on or off the display of hi ascii characters 
      used in html markup. This may be turned on or off. 1=on 0=off

              *some characters may still show as this only controls &#num;
              elements of the markup.

      (h_mark) is used to set the display of headings as an hierarchical outline
      the default is '' and will display indented with the number.    1)like so

         *you may set this to display a specific character buy using D2C(num)
         with num being a three digit number from 128 - 255
    
  
   c)Geting around

                 **Using the keyboard  navigating in Headline News**
       
    Most of the windows have a help screen that can be read by pressing
    the F1 key.
    The ESC key will leave any current window.
     
    The first time the Headline News is run you must fetch the list of 
    articles. This is accomplished  by pressing D key at the main selection 
    window.  Otherwise you may chose to browse an existing list by pressing 
    the B key.
       
    A list of articles is  then displayed. You should then select an article by pressing
    the corresponding letter key (A-V).
        *    Use the PAGE_UP or PAGE_DOWN keys to go through the list.
        *    The HOME key will take you to the top of the list. 
        *    The END key goes to the end of the list.
       
   After selecting the letter(A-V) key, that matches the article you wish to view,
   Headline News will download, format, and display the text of the article.
     
        *  If the text is displayed off the screen, you can use the LEFT and RIGHT 
           arrow keys to scroll.
 
        *  The PAGE_UP PAGE_DOWN HOME and END keys are all active.
       
   The article may be saved by pressing the ALT-S key. This displays a window to enter
   the direcotyr where the file is to be placed along, with the name of the file.
  
          * The default directory can be set by modifying the savesdir parameter 
            (in News.cfg)

          * Caution: 
                The cursor is at the left end of the line -- so it must be
                moved to the proper location to before typing in the name
                (you can use the END key). 
       
   After the article has been read the ESC key will bring the selection list 
   screen back up.
       
   To exit Headline News press ESC until a window pop's up asking if you 
   wish to exit  (pressing the Y key will exit).

Cavities: 
           From time to time then news servers will move or discontinue an 
           article. If errors about (text start or text end) get frequent try 
           downloading a new list of articles.

                 * At any time a site may decide to reformat their web pages
                 making this program inoperable until changes are made.

[end of file] 
