This is the README for NewsArchiver.0.2.N.b.tar.gz [Download] [Browse] [Up]
NewsArchiver.app
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Ever wished you had an app that manages saved usenet
articles, lets you read them and search through them ?
Well, NewsArchiver.app is a step in that direction.
It's not perfect (see below for things missing) but it only took a weekend to write
and has some nice features like:
- reads ascii files containing usenet articles, splits
the articles as records and saves them indexed in one
archive
- it swallows ascii files as found on ftp sites
containing postings, nfold and mbox directories which
are treated as files (but read important remark below)
- provides an easy interface for navigating in the archive
- provides an easy interface for constructing queries
- communicates with Mail.app
and some others.
There's also a small unix tool called "archive" as a companion tool
to NewsArchiver. You can archive large ascii files with it in a terminal
window. It only takes one argument: the name of the ascii file to be
archived. "archive" and NewsArchiver cannot be used at the same time.
"archive" cannot build the archive file (in ~/.AppInfo/NewsArchiver).
To build the archive file simply start NewsArchiver.app and quit.
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Note:
NewsArchiver is not FAT right now because I don't
know how to compile flex fat. I need a fat flex (fl.a)
library or a makefile that compiles flex fat.
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Why do I need it ?
For example I need to search through usenet articles for tricks of the trade in programming
NXBrowsers. I download from a ftp site say all
articles posted in Dec '93 in c.s.n.p. I open the file in Edit.app and
search for "browser"...Wait a minute, this is a simple way to do it.
Another way would be writing a scanner that sets markers in
the file so that DataPhile.app can read the articles as records.
You then have a cool commercial and supported program, can
design your own interface for reading the articles, have multiple
views etc...
NewsGrazer itself gives you a possibility with the NewsFolders.
You can index the NewsFolders with DigitalLibrarian
and work with that. (There's NewsIndex on the ftp archives
by Izumi Ohzawa).
Ok, NewsArchiver gives you yet another alternative.
I've written NewsArchiver primarly for finally doing something
with the IXKit and learning about it.
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LICENSE
NewsArchiver is PUBLIC DOMAIN !
Everybody can copy and distribute NewsArchiver as often as he wants.
Commercial distribution is strictly forbidden without the permission of the author.
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WARRANTY
There is no warranty whatsoever for NewsArchiver.
The entire risk of using the program lies with you.
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REMARK
This release is beta. It probably has bugs (read below)
but hey, see License and Warranty and don't expect to much.
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IMPORTANT REMARK
NewsArchiver needs perl in this version. It's only a small
perl-script named ccat in the NewsArchiver.app bundle.
Workaround if you don't want to install perl:
- write your own ccat in your favorate unix tool (awk, sed...)
and insert it in the NewsArchiver.app directory (be sure
the name is the same)
ccat concatenates the files which are passed as arguments
and inserts a newline after each file.
example: "ccat * > ~/tmp/test" writes the contents of all
files in the current directory into ~/tmp/test.
Plain unix cat does not insert a newline after a file and I only know
how to do it in perl (which is great by the way).
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KNOWN BUGS (READ THE WARRANTY AGAIN)
- IXAttributeQuery does only text search so far, so
if you construct a query with numbers (like the date)
it won't work. I didn't have time extending IXAttributeQuery.
Maybe I will some day.
- The Indexing Kit seems to have problems with attributes
greater than 8K (like some article text is). I cannot consistently
reproduce this bug but I recommend not to delete your mbox and
nfold directories after you have added them to NewsArchiver.
You might still need them.
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ABOUT THE SOURCES
This app is public domain and so naturally the sources
are available. There's a little problem linked to this:
I have a very tailored development environment with
lots of things in /LocalDeveloper, /usr/local/lib,...
I could put everything in the project which means
more work (ighh..). So if you are interested in the source
let me know. I should warn you the code is not very
pedagogical (no comments, a few hacks...).
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Send suggestions and bug reports to:
Uwe Hoffmann
hoffmann@fzi.de
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Things you probably would love to have but are not
in NewsArchiver at the moment
- Life span for articles, articles that die vanish from the archive
- Multi-Document (Multi-Archive) support
- Separate threads for searching and adding new articles
- Communication of some sort with NewsGrazer
- more attributes like the newsgroup and so on...
- No bugs
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.