eric@snark.uu.net (Eric S. Raymond) (03/18/89)
The level 7 beta of TMN-Netnews (aka Netnews 3.0) is now available for
anonymous ftp; copies are also queued to the 50 beta sites that poll snark.
The ftp site is linc.cis.upenn.edu; look in /usr/ftp/dist/tmnn/beta7
This should be the last beta release. The few known bugs remaining should not
interfere with normal production use for most sites; and the rate of new-bug
reports on each beta has been converging nicely towards zero.
This release's new features include full implementation of the delsub control
message and an experimental addsub counterpart. With these messages a
downstream site can change its upstream subscriptions, within limits set by
system admins at feed sites.
Full support for the FLEXGROUPS consept (the ability to flag hierarchies so
that newsgroups in them are created on the fly by article postings, and
aged to expiration during periods of inactivity) is implemented. FLEXGROUPS
is defaulted on for the `alt' hierarchy.
Also, subject list lines are now created on the fly by readers during keyboard
waits. This means that you can customize your subject list line format through
an environment variable; see newsreaders(5) for details.
Between my hardware problems, my flat-brokeness troubles, and some persistent
bugs, it's been an epic struggle getting this release done. I apologize to
everybody that waited through months of my Real Soon Nows; things should
get a little easier and more regular now, I've got some income and (cross
your fingers) a new development system should be coming in the door as
soon as I work out the legal kinks in the donation process with my
would-be benefactor.
The one major task remaining (one I can't, unfortunately, do myself, not
being an Internet site) is test/debug/qualification of the NNTP-interface
code. Several veteran netters including Mel Pleasant and Greg Noel
have volunteered to work on this; it will get done.
Next on the agenda, after the NNTP support is working, is a full-fledged
X-based newsreader (I wanted a good excuse to learn X anyhow). I'll also
be finally implementing the enhanced-sendme-based distributed-fetch
capability that will take us towards full hypertext. These changes will
be issued as patch sets via UUCP to registered beta sites, and made
available for anonymous ftp on linc.
Here are the currently registered beta sites:
amdahl crdos1 galaxia ncc sco unisec
att creation hc nucleus shade uport
barris csccat hhb obdient splut mcdurb
belltech daver hoptoad pbox ssyx vader
bigtex devon icus polyof stanton vijit
bpa dg_oz killer polyslo telesci vu-vlsi
cbmvax dukcds mcf pyrdc telesof wb3ffv
cocktrice elan lts rambo twitch winfree
cheers eplrx7 mips rinc u1100a xanadu
cooper everex mstar sawmill uiucuxc zoso
If you are *not* a registered beta site, but you want to play with this
anyhow, please email me and get registered. That will help ensure that
your change requests get handled promptly.
--
Eric S. Raymond (the mad mastermind of TMN-Netnews)
Email: eric@snark.uu.net CompuServe: [72037,2306]
Post: 22 S. Warren Avenue, Malvern, PA 19355 Phone: (215)-296-5718