Re: GNOME: Newsreader development

[Gianluca Montecchi <gm518464 silab dsi unimi it>]

On Tue, 10 Mar 1998, Gregory Dearing wrote:

> > I am already working on a newsreader, for now is on a very early level.
> > There is only a idea of the gui
> 
> Well, you're well ahead of me.  I just crunched through the Gtk
> docs last night. :)

Not so ahead....

> > I am writing it from scratch, but my idea is to make a little program, so
> > this method seems work (for now)
> 
> The base NNTP standard from RFC977 is pretty simple, if somewhat out
> of date.  However, since all that tested code is already out there,
> you might as well utilize it.  I, personally, don't really have the
> time to write a scratch newsreader anymore. :)

I got the RFC, but unluckyli I read it after the RFC1036 (about the
standard for interchange of USENET messages) so I was a little confused.

> > > * Intelligent display of articles.
> 
> > Personlly I hate the news written with html, but I am thinking to
> > implement it, just to have a simple way to have a reader. In the begin I
> > think to use it... just in case....
> 
> I agree, concerning posts which use HTML formatting.  However, I also
> know people who read news with Netscape or even swap back to a Windows
> environment just to handle those sort of posts.  If the relevent Gtk
> widgets let me do that without too much trouble, then I would
> certainly consider that a bonus.

I agree. But I have a mayor problem to use the gtk/html(?) widget: I work
in two palces: home and university. While at home I have not any problem,
at University I cannot do what I want,so I have not the Gnome installed
(nor I can install it: I have only 10 Mb of space....).
The idea is to use it anyway.

> > I don't understand just a thing: it will be a text reader or a graphics
> > reader ? The question because I am writing a graphic reader and I'd like
> > to have some help. I cannot swap to a text reader, where I have the access
> > to the net, I have not the console, only x-window and x-term.
> 
> For the moment, I'm converting a text reader to use graphical widgets
> and event-oriented logic.  Note that your xterm, rxvt, etc... can do
> pretty much anything the console can.  Hrm, I'm not sure I fully
> understand your question. :)

This is what I want to know.:) I start with a clone of netscape 2.xx adn
3.xx news reader program because I like it, simple and fast. Nut the
problem is that is big, so I start a graphics program with the goal to
make it small and fast, not just a porting. I start also because part of
my study at University is based on the programming of network application,
so this is a good way to prepare an exam (for me) :-)

BTW the newsreader will be under GPL ;-)

Someone says that it is better to have more than only one program because
everyone have his idea about the best newsreader program. My idea is to
share all the part for the off-line reading of the news, and the part
about the active newsgroups, the directory tree where store them and so on
so we can do two program that don't waste a lot of disk space.
Is this ok for you ?


(there is also another advantage to have two news reader: the choice.)

> > P.S. Someone know where I can find a library that implement the NNTP
> > specs?
> 
> I would probably suggest looking at an existing software such as nn,
> suck or inn.
> 
> You might also want to take a look at 
> 
> 	http://www.mibsoftware.com/userkt/forsoft.htm
> 
> which is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to write usenet
> software.  Of course, ignore their article which gives the following
> advice...


Thanks.:-)


bye

Gianluca


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