Chapter 3
Reference

The TkNewsII program is a multi-protocol news / EchoMail client. It supports a local USENET news-feed access, NNTP access, and QWK access.

TkNewsII is started from the command line and takes one (optional) command like option: -iconic. If this option is present on the command line, the application starts up iconified. TkNewsII is configured with a resource file named .TkNewsRc. TkNewsII won’t start with out this file.

The TkNewsII’s GUI consists of a Main Window, described in Section 3.1, and zero or more Spool Windows, described in Section 3.2.

3.1 Main Window


pict

Figure 3.1: Main Window


The Main Window consists of the menu bar and a list of QWK files in the QWK spool directory, as shown in Figure 3.1.

The Main Window’s file menu provides these 6 main functions:

Open QWK File
Open the selected QWK file and import its messages into its spool.
Get QWK File
Get a QWK file for a selected spool. This generally involves running a user-supplied script that connects to the BBS or server in question and downloading a QWK file. The QWK file is then imported into the spool. Any out going messages are collected into a QWK reply file and uploaded.
Get All QWK Files
Get QWK files for all spools that define a QWK spool script.
Review Spool
(Re-)open a spool window and load its current state.
Rescan
Rescan the QWK spool directory and look for fresh QWK files.
Make QWK Reply
Collect out going messages for a spool into a QWK reply file.

Double clicking on a QWK file in the QWK spool directory listing opens the selected QWK file.

3.2 Spool Window


pict

Figure 3.2: Typical Spool Window


Each Spool Window contains a menu bar, a group list, and a group level button menu, as shown in Figure 3.2. The file menu provides three main functions:
Read Group
The selected group is opened and a list of available articles is shown in the article list.
Post
The system opens an article edit window or starts an external editor process.
Clean
This function “cleans” messages from a group directory. This function only makes sense for downloaded spools, that is QWK-based spools.

The group list displays the groups subscribed you are subscribed to and also contains a saved message areas as well.

The group menu buttons include:

Unread Group
Mark all messages in the group unread.
Read Group
The selected group is opened and a list of available articles is shown in the article list.
Close Group
Close the group.
Catch Up Group
Mark all messages in the group as read.
Unsubscribe Group
Unsubscribe from the group. For QWK spools this only effects TkNewsII and you will need to log onto the BBS and update your profile there.
Directory of all Groups
Produce a directory listing of all known groups that match a specified pattern.
Refresh Group List
Rescan the group list, updating the message counts.

Double clicking on a group listed in the group list does a Read Group on the selected group.

When a group is open an article list button menu, an article list, and an article button menu is added.

The article list button menu contains buttons that:

Compose
Same as post.
List/Search Articles
Produce a listing off all articles that match a specified pattern.
Read Article
Read a selected article. An Article Read Window is displayed showing the selected article
Refresh Article List
Refresh the article listing.
Manage Saved Articles
(Only for saved articles). A ¡Manage Saved Articles Menu¿ is displayed,

Double clicking on an article in the article list does a Read Article on the selected article.

The article button menu contains buttons that:

Reply To All
For E-Mail groups, initiate a reply, using all addresses in From:, Reply-To:, To: and Cc: header lines.
Followup
For groups that are not email based, reply to the newsgroup.
Mail Reply To Sender
Send a private E-Mail to the sender of the current article.
Save
Save (append) the current message to a flat file of messages.
File
File the current message in a saved messages directory.

3.3 TkNewsII Resource file

The file ~/.TkNewsRC is the TkNewsII resource file. It is in standard X11 option database format and consists of key pattern value lines. Lines starting with a # are comments. Otherwise lines consist of option name patterns containing either names or class names of components or window pathname elements the wild cards (*) or periods separating these elements. There is a colon at the end of the pattern and there is a value after that.

The TkNewsII top level window has a class name of Tknewsii, so this should be used to introduce resources in the global X11 option database, that is in .Xdefaults or .Xresources files. In the .TkNewsRc, this is not needed. For spool and group based resources, including the name of the spool or group (with periods replaced with underscores) name (all lower case) or class (first character capitalized, the rest lower case) will specialize the resource to the specific spool or group within the spool. Spool windows are always children of the main top level and group windows are always children of the spool window they are part of. Article read windows are also children of the spool window as well. More specialized resources take precedence over less specialized resources.

Resources:

Additional general resources can be specified, such as foreground and background colors as well as fonts and other appearance related resources.