Readme for ProNews/2 Version 1.00 Beta 1 -------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for evaluating ProNews/2, the best USENET reader for OS/2! To install please type install on the command line. Notes about this version ------------------------ + A number of things are not implemented, including help and POP3 posting. Many of the routines have not been optimized and you may experience high memory usage. This will be addressed before the final release of 1.00. + There are probably numerous bugs, and without your help we won't be able to find them. If you have a problem, please email us (panacea@program.com) and let us know. + This version will quit working on August 15th 1997. We have put this timeout in the code to ensure that people are using the most current beta. There will be a new beta posted to our website at LEAST two weeks before this version times out. + This (and all beta versions of version 1.00) are free until it times out. What this means is that if the beta cycle lasts 3 months, and you use the program for that period you are not expected to pay any money. By using this beta and reporting bugs/requests you are doing us a favor, not the other way around. Of course once the final 1.00 is released this program will become shareware. Non obvious features -------------------- + Using the TAB key on the article windows switches between the article bodies and article headers windows. + The SPACE key pages down the article body window, and when the end of the article is reached, advances to the next unread article. + Each toolbar in the program can be customized. Right click on the toolbar to learn more. Toolbars for individual groups are saved so you can give each group you read it's own toolbar suited to it's content. + Double clicking on the [+] [-] items in the tree views expands all sub trees. + Selecting all articles in a group will automatically scan for multimessage binaries and properly decode them for you. Binaries with missing parts are not downloaded, and are highlighted to let you know they have missing pieces. + To edit an article or message that is queued for send you have to go into the Queue window and double click on it. + Currently the filter language is undocumented in the programs help files so we have included this as starting point: Filter/Watch command language. (ProNews Filter Command Language) PFCL is one of the more complex aspects of the program, but with a little practice (and this section of the help) it can easily be mastered. The boolean operators --------------------- XOR - Exclusive Or. Two expressions that are exclusive or'd will only evaluate to true if one or the other is true. If both are true or false the expression will evaluate to false. AND - Two expressions that are anded will only evaluate to true if both of them are true. NOT - Flips a true expression to false and a false expression to true. OR - Two expressions that are or'd will only evaluate to true if at least one of the items is true. Or will only evaluate to false if BOTH items are false. Order of precedence - There is no order of precedence to the four operators. If you need to force precedence or group statements this may be done with parenthesis. The operands ------------ subject - This operand is for the subject of the article. composer - This operand is for composer of the article. group - This operand is for the group which the article is in. Really only usefull for global filters or watches. lines - This operand is for the number of lines. You may specify greater than, less than, or equal to. The lines operand looks like this. [lines="300"] Only evaluates to true if the article contains 300 lines. [lines="<300"] Only evaluates to true if the number of lines is less than 300. [lines">300"] Only evaluates to true if the number of lines is greater than 300. Pattern matching - PFCL supports complex pattern matching. * will evaluate to true when compared to any text. ? will match a single letter. if the subject of an article is 'Make money fast!' [subject="*money fast*"] will evaluate to true, whereas [subject="make money"] will evaluate to false. Case sensitivity - To make subject and composer matches case sensitive the subject or composer operands must be specified in all upper case. So if the subject of an article is 'HI whats happening?' [subject="hi whats happening?"] evaluates to true and [SUBJECT="hi whats happening?"] will evaluate to false. + Watching. Watching follows the same language rules as filtering, but either highlights or auto downloads (or both) the article. If a group has unread watched articles it will be highlighted in the subscriptions list. + Right click on everything. Nearly every part of the program has a context sensitive menu. Some options may only be reached in this manner. Known Bugs and Limitations -------------------------- High CPU usage when downloading large numbers of small articles. Will be addressed. High Memory usage when opening large numbers of group windows. The help system is in it's very early stages. Again, thank you for trying ProNews/2!