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A program to assist HTTP browsing of newsgroups
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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WWW browsers such as NCSA Mosaic allow the user to read newsgroup
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articles by specifying the group name in a URL eg 'news:comp.answers'.
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To browse through many groups, though, (and there are several thousand
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of them) you really need a page or pages containing links to all the
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groups. There are some good ones out there, for example,
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http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/News/Groups/Overview.html
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is the standard one at CERN, but it only shows the groups available there,
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which may be rather different from those available on your machine.
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Newslist is a program which creates a hierarchy of pages for you based
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on the groups available from YOUR server. It is written in python - a
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splendid interpreted object-oriented language which I suggest you get
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right now from the directory /pub/python at ftp.cwi.nl, if you haven't
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You should be able to see some sample output by looking at:
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http://pelican.cl.cam.ac.uk/newspage/root.html
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Descriptions of newsgroups can be added from a file with one group
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alt.foo Articles about foo
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comp.bar Programming in 'bar' and related languages
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A suitable list detailing most groups can be found at ftp.uu.net in
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/uunet-info/newsgroups.gz.
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Make sure you read the information at the beginning of the program source and
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configure the variables before running.
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In addition to python, you need:
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An NNTP-based news feed.
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A directory in which to put the pages.
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The programming is not very beautiful, but it works! It comes with no
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warranty, express or implied, but with the hope that some others may
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Comments, improvements & suggestions welcomed.
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Quentin Stafford-Fraser
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Quentin Stafford-Fraser
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http://pelican.cl.cam.ac.uk/people/qs101/me.html
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Cambridge University Computer Lab Rank Xerox Cambridge EuroPARC
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qs101@cl.cam.ac.uk fraser@europarc.xerox.com
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Tel: +44 223 334411 Tel: +44 223 341521
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Fax: +44 223 334679 Fax: +44 223 341510
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