GIH900@FAC.anu.OZ.AU (Geoff Huston) (11/12/87)
In article <8710200629.AA00471@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Allen Cole writes: >> Does anyone know of any alternatives to VAXNOTES for VAX-based BBS-type >> operations? Commercial or not, pointers to information on products of this >> type would be greatly appreciated. >> >> Thanks in advance, >> Joel Garrett > >Since this is of interest to the net in general, I will post it instead of >sending mail. We are using a program called BYUNEWS. > ..... >We also have used Mark London's BULLETIN program that was advertised on >INFO-VAX, and Geoff Huston's NEWS program (gih9000@fac.anu.oz) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The purpose of this posting is to inform the net of the V4.0 release of the NEWS program. This release appears very similar to BYUNEWS as described by Allen, and, as I haven't got a copy of BYUNEWS, cannot comment on differences of style. My work on NEWS over the last 12 months has been in producing a news system on VMS which is fully compliant with the Standard for Interchange of USENET Messages (Mark Horton, AT&T, revised for B 2.11 news by Rick Adams, dated October 1986). This has been largely successful, and the NEWS V4.0 program is as fully compliant with that standard as I can get it! The implication of this is that the VMS system can not only function as an end-node on the news net distribution scheme, but can also function as a routing node for network news batches. This routing capability encompasses serving any form of connected nodes, both Decnet, PMDF, Kermit,.... The system can feed remote sites by batch file or mail transfer, and can also break up news items and forward items through VMS mail to individual users. The system also includes translation schemes to match the capabilities of the VMS Mailer and the internet style addresses used on Usenet. Other capabilities appear very similar to BYUNEWS (and vn), using newsgroup directory screens, news item directory screens, user selectable editor interface, keeping track of items which have been read,... (the work continues) Allen Cole continues in his article (re: BYUNEWS) >We are a beta test site for the program, but don't have a financial >interest in the program. The cost is $200. NEWS V4.0 is FREE, and includes all source code (written in C), as well as object and executable images. Distribution outside Australia is not so easy... I would like to hear from any sites in the States who wish to act as a distribution point for the code, or any other suggestions that avoid my living for half my time beside the tape drives, and the other half in the mail room! In Australia ther program is available using the PSI_COPY program (over Austpac) from the DTE below. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Geoff Huston Computer Services Centre, Australian National University AUSTRALIA ACSnet,CSNET: gih900@fac.anu.oz INTERNET: gih900%fac.anu.oz@uunet.uu.net UUCP: {uunet,hplabs,ubc-vision,nttlab,mcvax,ukc}!munnari!fac.anu.oz!gih900 PSI_MAIL: PSI%0505262440032::gih900 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------