Steven.Maker@dartmouth.edu (Steven Maker) (03/05/91)
At Dartmouth College, two of us are writing a Macintosh NNTP news reader for use as a general conferencing and bulletin board system here, and also to interface with the Usenet News. Temporarily called ProtoNews, it is currently operational in developmental versions, and is in daily use by a number of people, but at the moment only speaks our local network protocol (KSP). A future version will also support the Comm Toolbox, and will be usable outside Dartmouth. If we're allowed to, we'll distribute it for free. ProtoNews is a MacApp program. You read news via a three-paned window: newsgroups, topics, & articles, with Macintosh style (not rn/nn) commands. Any number of windows can be open at once, containing newsgroups selected by you. We think it's an improvement over the Unix-based systems, and our users seem to agree. I'm using it to post this message. Steve Maker INTERNET: Steve.Maker@dartmouth.edu Courseware Development Group, Dartmouth College
bryanvv@mttam.uucp (Bryan Van Vliet) (03/06/91)
Besides ProtoNews from Dartmouth College you should look at: 1) TheNews - The latest version I have is 1.4. It is available via anonymous ftp from sumex-aim.stanford.edu and can be found in the directory comm as the-news.hqx. It requires MacTCP and is shareware for $20.00. It is fast but provides no easy way to display newsgroups, topics & articles at the same time. It also has the 32k TextEdit limit for displaying articles (you can still save longer articles.) Otherwise, it is quite useable. I use TheNews regularly although ProtoNews sounds interesting :-). 2) TCP/Connect II - This commercial software package from Intercon Systems provides not only an NNTP news reader but also a POP2/SMTP mail client, and VT220/VT240/3270 terminal emulation. It lists for $495.00 and was reviewed in the January, 1991 MacWorld. It uses MacTCP or its own SLIP implementation. It provides three panes to display newsgroups, topics & articles at the same time and also accepts RN-style commands. I believe it doesn't have the 32k TextEdit limit for displaying articles, although I am not sure. If you need vt220/vt240 emulation, SLIP or are enamored with commercial software TCP/Connect II is the way to go. Otherwise, at least consider using a combination of Eudora (a really nice POP3/SMTP public domain mail client), TheNews, NCSA Telnet (an excellent public domain vt100 terminal emulator with support for ftp), and tn3270 (a public domain 3270 terminal emulator) to do the same thing for a lot cheaper ($20.00 in shareware fees.) 3) NetNews Reader Stack - This is a Hypercard stack that works well (at least with Hypercard 1.2.5) albeit slowly. It has the 32k TextEdit limit for displaying (but not saving) articles. It requires MacTCP. The only problem I see with the public domain NNTP packages is that MacTCP is not available with them. Is Apple only going to make MacTCP available from APDA or with commercial packages? If you have one commercial package with MacTCP can you legally use MacTCP with the public domain NNTP packages? Why is the Communications Toolbox available on BBS systems (America Online for instance) and not MacTCP? Why isn't MacTCP available from your dealer? -- Bryan Van Vliet bryanvv@mttam.uucp or uunet!mttam!bryanvv
amanda@visix.com (Amanda Walker) (03/06/91)
bryanvv@mttam.uucp (Bryan Van Vliet) writes: >2) TCP/Connect II - ... I believe it doesn't have the 32k TextEdit limit > for displaying articles, although I am not sure. You are correct. It doesn't use TextEdit, so it can handle big articles and tabs, as well as being faster than TextEdit would be. Personally, I like its UI best, but that's probably because I wrote it :)... >Why is the Communications Toolbox available on BBS systems >(America Online for instance) and not MacTCP? Why isn't MacTCP available >from your dealer? Well, the cynic in me would say that it's simply becaause Apple can't support MacTCP to end users. One advantage (to Apple) of making it an OEM product is that Apple then doesn't have to deal with customers (not to mention dealers) who don't understand what an IP number is. Sigh... However, as Steve Dorner has pointed out a few times, it *does* come with Eudora, which is available for anonymous FTP. It's also on the developer CD-ROMs. Disclaimer: I used to work for InterCon, and wrote their newsreader. -- Amanda Walker amanda@visix.com Visix Software Inc. ...!uunet!visix!amanda -- Implementation is 95% boredom and 5% terror.
mcdougal@despair.uchicago.edu (Tom McDougal) (03/06/91)
I have been frustrated by TheNews. It crashes on me pretty consistently when I close a groups file. Any ideas? -- --Tom (mcdougal@cs.uchicago.edu) 1908, Bert Yemoth produces more divining rods than you can shake a stick at.
dorner@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Dorner) (03/08/91)
In article <1CE00001.qsydge@tbomb.ice.com> time@ice.com writes: >It costs a developer something like $5000 to have the right to redistribute >MacTCP. Yes. For Universities it is $2000. Or so say the license agreements I have. -- Steve Dorner, U of Illinois Computing Services Office Internet: s-dorner@uiuc.edu UUCP: uunet!uiucuxc!uiuc.edu!s-dorner
smith@newsserver.sfu.ca (Richard Smith) (03/11/91)
In <1991Mar8.170731.20178@cs.utk.edu> jnm@ornl.gov (Jamey Maze) writes: >I tried TheNews, but it too was unreliable. The HyperCard stack seems to >be the most reliable news reader at this point. I too like Eudora (with >Berkeley's "popper" POP3 server)... Wouldn't is be wonderful to have "Eudora/News"? Many of the user interface features of Eudora would be useful for a news reader. I tried TheNews (1.1, 1.2, 1.4) and was very dissappointed. I can't understand how it can not support cut and paste - isn't that a standard for the mac? I have returned to reading news via nn on the host. ...r
amanda@visix.com (Amanda Walker) (03/12/91)
jnm@ornl.gov (Jamey Maze) writes:
I've got TCP/Connect II and would like to use its news reader, but it's
rather buggy. I was using 1.0.1, which locked up often. I recently got
the 1.0.6 upgrade, but it crashes at the slightest provocation.
Hmm. I run 1.0.5 pretty much continuously, without a hitch. Some more
detail might help. For example, if your news server keeps articles
around for a real long time, you may need to increase the MultiFinder
memory size for the application.
I don't like to complain, but I get the feeling Intercon doesn't
realize there's a bit of a quality control problem here...
Have you given them a call? They have some really good tech support
people these days. Maybe you've got something set up wrong...
--
Amanda Walker amanda@visix.com
Visix Software Inc. ...!uunet!visix!amanda
--
When you are not looking at it, this posting is in French.kdb@macaw.intercon.com (Kurt Baumann) (03/14/91)
In article <1991Mar8.170731.20178@cs.utk.edu>, jnm@ornl.gov (Jamey Maze) writes: > I recently got > the 1.0.6 upgrade, but it crashes at the slightest provocation. I don't > like to complain, but I get the feeling Intercon doesn't realize there's a > bit of a quality control problem here... You should be up to 1.0.7, if you are not get in touch with our tech support and let them know. We are frustrated in that every network has an individual personality, what works for us and many other users sometimes does not work for another. As an example I have been using the news reader for the past year and with the exception of beta version problems I have not had problems. So please get in touch with tech support and let them know your problems so that we can figure out why you are having a problem. So, PLEASE complain, that is how we know there are problems and that is how we get them fixed. Thanks! As an aside Apple has a PD news reader HyperCard Stack that a lot of people seem to like. Kurt Baumann InterCon Systems Corporation 703.709.9890 Creators of fine TCP/IP products 703.709.9896 FAX for the Macintosh.