mc68020@nonvon.UUCP (root) (07/17/87)
I have been hacking about with the news 2.11 release (getting it running
on my system has been a nightmare, and I haven't finished yet!), and in so
doing, I find that many things have changed. In particular, while some of the
sources are still very difficult to read, I find that many now have much more
documentation than the last release I received.
I humbly apologize to the authors of the news system for fast-drawing
and shooting from the hip...I was incorrect. There *IS* documentation
internal to SOME of the news software.
Now I just wish I could get the *&^%*&^%*&^$*%$%$%#%#%^&$# software to
compile and RUN correctly on my (&^%*&^$%*^%$*^$*%^$*^% system! (at least
50% of my problem is that I am trying to bring this stuff up on a Tandy
6000 under XENIX 3.0. Another 40% is attributable to my lack of experience
with such large software packages. This leaves me 10% about which I can bitch
here....*evil grin*)
Seriously, though, after editting my Makefile to reflect local needs
(including such hassles as creating new loader flags because I have a fixed
stack architecture), I *STILL* have several problems I am attempting to
track down. I cannot get checknews to compile. *IF* I fix the obvious
error (that several of the .o files needed to create checknews were not
included in the link statement for checknews), I am left with two (2)
unsatisfied references, _line and _header. _header I can fix. For the
life of me, I cannot see why _line is causing problems.
Then there's the problem with logdir.c. Many of the programs in the
news system require it, but the makefile didn't compile it, nor did it link
it in. I had to grep around and figure out who needed it, and set *THAT*
straight.
Now, no one gauranteed that the news 2.11 distribution would be perfect,
or that it would necessarily be a breeze to install on all machines. But
seriously, how could such MAJOR problems with the makefile have persisted
this long with them being fixed? Or is there some subtle point I am missing?
Certainly, none of the documentation files mentioned logdir.c. How was I
to know it required special attention? Likewise with ftime.c
Finally, I cannot get readnews or vnews to let me read articles. The
articles are there, the directories are all correct, the permissions are
right, but both readnews and vnews claims that "News articles are not available
currently". I am now attempting to make the whole news system over again,
with the debug switches set. Maybe I'll learn something useful. Any
other suggestions (helpful suggestions only. Flames and snide comebacks
to /dev/null, please. I've already apologized for my errors)??
UUCP:{ihnp4,ames,qantel,sun,amdahl,lll-crg,pyramid}!ptsfa!nonvon!mc68020
--
UUCP:{ihnp4,ames,qantel,sun,seismo,amdahl,lll-crg,pyramid}!ptsfa!nonvon!mc68020