chris (Christopher J. Ambler) (04/24/89)
There has been some interest in my UseNet news reader for the PC recently, so i will make a brief discription. Fubar BBS has, in its message system, in addition to sections for regular BBS message bases, a UseNet section. Basically, it's an "rn" lookalike with a subset of the "rn" commands. The system uses Fubar Systems UUCP (fuucp) to transfer files. there are PC versions of uucico, uuxqt, rmail, mail, rnews, batcher, expire, inews, and the rn portion of the BBS system. uucico implements "g" protocol at w=1 (i'm working on a w=3 version currently), and the directory structure is compatable with UUPC. uuxqt only recognizes 2 commands, being "rmail" and "rnews." The news system reads the D. and X. files from uucp, and again, it's in UUPC compatable directory format so you don't have to use my uucp software if you don't want to. rnews unpacks the articles from the #!rnews format, and deposits them in the correct directories with the correct local message number. The rn programme (and postnews) allow posting of news, either with a line editor or fuvedit, a vi subset workalike. It keeps a batch info file (eg. \fubar\spool\batch\site) and "batcher" batches the articles, putting them in the UUPC compatable D. C. and B. files, ready for transmission. I neglected to mention that the uucp package also has uusnap and uuq, because the whole system runs in a BBS environment, and they are handy. The current system has been up for about a month now, and is under beta testing. Current release date for the whole BBS package is 24 august, and i am going to make a standalone version of the uucp and news software due to demand. I PLAN to release this standalone version by the end of June. If you would like to see the system, and please remember it's under beta test, so there ARE bugs, you can call Fubar BBS at (805) 544-9234. It occasionally goes down when a nasty bug pops in, so if it rings out, you know why. I plan on making the whole shebang shareware, contribution not as of yet determined. I am ALWAYS open to criticism and suggestions, though. Further discussion on alt.bbs, please. --- | ++Christopher(); | FUBAR Systems | Dumb: ucbvax!voder!polyslo!fubarsys!chris | 1525 Mill #6 San Luis Obispo, | Smart: fubarsys!chris@polyslo.calpoly.edu | California, 93401-2543 USA | Data/BBS: (805) 544-9234 300/1200 N81 | "What The Devil?!"