iPost/2 v0.20
                              =============

what does it do?!?
------------------
iPost is an NNTP client. It reads articles from the NNTP host and writes them
directly in a Squish messagebase, so you can read them with your favourite
Squish message editor. That's all it does - it's unidirectional. iPost doesn't
care if you write messages in those messagebases.

version
-------
This release is very preliminary. The code is a quick and dirty combination
of Souper (which takes up a large part of the source, credit where credit
is due) and my own scriblings.

If version 1.00 ever sees daylight, it will have support for e-mail (POP3 and
SMTP client) and bidirectional NNTP. It will problably use ftn type 2+ packets
instead of Squish. Then again, I might just install Fidogate and discover it
does all this already and dump this. :-)

requirements
------------
iPost is a 32-bit OS/2 program. It requires TCP/IP for OS/2 (or the
BonusPak's Internet Access Kit) and the 32-bit Squish API DLL msgapi32.dll.

here's the deal
---------------
The source is absolutely free. I donate my work to the public domain. This
software and its source are provided on an 'as-is' basis. If it blows up your
computer, well tough luck. I will in no way be held responsible.

However, your comments and question are very welcome. My e-mail addresses
are listed at the bottom of this file.

It has been compiled using IBM CSet/2 (can't get my $%*œ Watcom to work like
it should). The Squish development kit is needed (ibmdev32.zip is the version
I ported to CSet), as well as the TCP/IP programmer's toolkit.

configuration and operation
---------------------------
iPost takes no parameters. Just run the exe. Everything to be configured is
in the configuration file.

An iPost.cfg file is required in the current directory. It has the following
configuration directives:

from            2:292/608.18
   The from node in the messages.
to              All
   The default value of the 'To:' field. The 'X-To:' RFC-822 kludge is
   recognised, and its value used if it is present.
origin          "My very own private usenet-fidonet gate"
   The default origin line. The 'Organization:' field is used if it is present.
newsserver      news.ping.be
   The name of you news server.

You may then specify any number of newsgroup names, followed by the path of the
messagebase the articles from those groups should be written to. A '$' in front
of the path specifies a Squish messagebase. No $ specifies the directory of a
*.msg (stardot, SDM) messagebase. Example:

alt.tasteless.jokes                     $d:\msgbase\news\atjokes
rec.food.veg                            $d:\msgbase\news\rfveg
alt.fan.pratchett                       $d:\msgbase\news\afpratch
talk.politics.animals                   $d:\msgbase\news\tpanim
comp.os.os2.networking.tcp-ip           $d:\msgbase\news\coontcp

You also need a newsrc file. From this file, it is decided which newsgroups
will be downloaded. iPost also uses this file to keep the count of the last
message read. It takes one name of a newsgroup per line, followed by a colon
':' and a list of the numbers of the messages that have already been read. No
list instructs iPost to start reading from the first message available.
Example:

alt.tasteless.jokes:
rec.food.veg:
alt.fan.pratchett:
talk.politics.animals:
comp.os.os2.networking.tcp-ip:

that's all folks
----------------
Good luck and happy reading. Although this is a preliminary version, I've been
using it myself for over a month at the time of this writing. I've had no
problems with it whatsoever.

Wouter/2 (Zombie3 on IRC), 06/06/95

Wouter Cloetens                                     wouter.cloetens@ping.be
Team OS/2 - OS/2 User Group Belgium           http://www.ping.be/~ping0203/
PGP key on demand                    2:292/608.18@fidonet 81:432/109@os2net