NewsFleX
Changes from previous versions
I am proud to present the 1.5.7.3 version of NewsFleX.
Every effort is made to have it bug free.
Bugs may still be present, please report these, so they can be fixed in a next release.
Changes from -1.5.7.2
Made most forms resize able.
Now testing for "eeepc' in uname -a, if eeepc is found, NewsFleX will skip a set locale in
get_universal_time_as_string() in postings.c, avoiding error alerts when running on Asus eeePC 710.
Changes from -1.5.7.1
Added check for other NewsFleX already running, now you can start only one per user.
This insures the database is always up to date.
Changes from -1.5.7
Bugfix release:
Using custom headers caused an error message as it looked for encrypted headers.
Changes from -1.5.6.3
You can either use imake or configure so you can compile it if you do not have Imake (xmkmf).
Cleaned up code, fixed an error, no warnings in -Wall.
Removed some debug to stdout.
Added missing prototypes.
Copied NewsFleX.1x to NewsFleX.man, imake uses man, configure .1x.
Added 'NewsFleX to version number in window manager frame.
Makefile generated by Imake deletes now old /usr/bin/NewsFleX as we are now in /usr/local/sbin/.
Changes from -1.5.6.2
Added encryption to headers, this is a preliminary release,
get it while it is still legal!
Why all this crypto?
The European Union will, and in the US the NSA already does, datamine all connection data.
So if you want to secretly communicate to or with someone - so they know not WHERE it
goes, not WHO it is for, and not WHAT is communicated, try using the new features:
OTP ENCRYPT TO HEADERS and OTP DECRYPT FROM HEADERS
Intended receiver must have for example a CD with the random files you use to encrypt,
only use each random file ONCE, make sure receiver knows which of these files to use
or
PGP ENCRYPT TO HEADERS and PGP DECRYPT FROM HEADERS
Encrypt with intended receivers public key.
When the other side just downloads all headers, there is no way of knowing WHO was the
intended recipient, as million of newsreaders will download headers.
Post something sensible to a group with a lot of traffic, the headers will not even be noticed.
The intendent recipient should look perhaps once a day for postings from you after
downloading the headers, but NOT DOWNLOAD THE ARTICLE BODY.
(this could narrow down the group a recipient could be in).
100% security can NEVER be attained, but this will help.
Changes from -1.5.6.1
Bugfix so get-url works, this broke in 1.5.6.1.
Changes from -1.5.6
Some font processing changes.
Now looks for true kernel version, and displays in postings, ID in URLs.
For browser_get_url field, added save_general_settings() in accept button
callback in url_form_cb.c, else making a change in that field in the URL
form was was never saved.
Fixed temp[4096[] in unquote() in articles.c so it is a pointer,
malloced and released, so cannot overflow, what caused a crash.
Reduced TEMP_SIZE (65535) to XTEMP_SIZE (4096) in decode_article(),
else crash (libc?).
Added warnings to stdout and array size checking in unquote() in articles.c.
Rewrote display_next_unread_article() for checks for empty groups, and not
existing articles in empty groups.
So should no longer hang in SEARCH NEXT UNREAD ARTICLE', and should find all
unread articles now.
Changes from -1.5.5
Newsserver password input in setup form now secret.
Fixed bug in NEXT UNREAD article button routine,
it would not search the complete grouplist, now it should.
Linked against the open source version of xforms.
Changes from -1.5.4.9
Fixed crash if update database at end of month, this was there since May 2002!
Changes from -1.5.4.8
Fixed string overflow in error report if posting was already send, caused a crash.
Changes from -1.5.4.7
Pressing next unread, or next unread in thread, now scips filtered articles.
'Delete all not locked articles' (article menu) and
'Delete all not locked articles in all groups' (groups puldown menu)
now also delete ANY filtered articles and headers.
Rewrite of alt editor routines using pthreads, to prevent a screen mess
when doing other things in the external editor.
Changes from -1.5.4.6
Icon added in iconify (must be NewsFleX.xpm).
'Auto add sig' button in setup added.
Some small changes in the signature adding routine.
Changes from -1.5.4.5
ENTER in filter password popup allowed.
Bug fixes possible segfault in signature.
OR and not NOT in filter selection button.
Some shorter error mesages when connection to server fails, so these fit in the alert popups.
Changes from -1.5.4.4
Color magenta now if both global font and article font the same in font browser to improve readability.
Selection of subscribed groups and the corresponding boxes in the groups menu when changing news servers.
Sorting font list on ISO extention number, else sometimes font not found while it was there.
Some text changes so messages fit in the alert messages.
Filter form password now invisible when entered.
Automatic '--' added if you press the signature button.
Email addres corrected.
Filters bug fixed that caused the wrong article (or posting) or nothing to be shown.
Filter form: now the browser topline is set so the selected line is visible.
With many thanks to all that helped :-)
Changes from -1.5.4.3
Bugfix filters, that showed nothing, or the wrong article,
if filters were active for article headers or postings headers.
Changes from -1.5.4.2
Bugfix 'debug' menu option in OPTIONS.
Some better instructions in README.FIRST.
Warning in delete postings.
Correct browser get_url script example for netscape, some cleanup in newsflexuser.tgz.
Changes from -1.5.4.1
Mainly bugfixes.
Better fonts handling in postings, will not get confused if you add fonts to your system.
Changes from -1.5.3
AUTOMATIC FONT SELECTION
If NewsFleX finds the header: 'Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1'
it will look if you have a -1 font for the font type you selected,
and if so, switch the font for the articles to that font.
(So special characters become readable).
If NewsFleX cannot find the font, it will fall back on the one you
selected for articles in the font browser.
When replying to a posting with a different font, NewsFleX also
uses that font in the posting editor.
When writing a new article NewsFleX uses the font you selected.
Also it automatically adds the correct headers, so the receiver can
select the same font.
Changes from -1.4.1
Font selector, with a list of (almost) all usable fonts on your system.
Support for Euro symbol.
Unquoting of subject lines and articles, to make foreign headers readable.
Some re-arrangement of buttons in the posting editor.
Changes from -1.3
Special character popup in posting editor.
Support for other character sets as command line option, for example ISO8895-15 Euro.
Warning if CANCEL pressed in posting editor, and any changes in the text were made.
Some re-arrangement of buttons in the posting editor.
Changes from -1.2
All forms have now some border, so these can be moved.
This also causes all popup forms to be on top in differing window managers like KDE.
Changes from -1.1.9.5
Bugfix so it no longer hangs on new error messages from new servers.
Some key bindings.
Changes from -1.1.9.4
An extra button has been added to the setup form named: 'Cut sig in reply'.
If this button is pressed then any signature preceded by a line starting with '--'
and for the rest empty, will be omitted in quoting in the reply.
'Beep on mail' button added in setup form.
If this button is pressed and also the 'Check mail' button then NewsFleX will
beep 2 times if new mail arrives.
Automatic source reference line insertion in replies to postings, with macros.
The folowing macros are recognized:
$DATE (date original article was posted)
$NAME name of the original author with email address.
$SNAME name of the original autor without email address.
The source reference line is inserted at the top of the reply, followed by an empty line.
You can define the text for this in the setup form, also enable or disable it there.
Changes from -1.1.9.3
In get URL if the location had no www. prepended, and the URL was redirected
to the same or an other that has www. prepended, then if the HOST_ONLY button
was set, this was considered a different URL, and would be scipped.
This is fixed now.
Chosing a multi line entry in the posting list and then an action from the postings
pull down menu would fail if not the first line of the entry was selected.
Fixed.
Changes from -1.1.9.2
Now 'news server list' (window pulldown menu) shows an alphabetical sorted list.
This makes it easier to find a server period if you have a lot of newsservers.
Changes from -1.1.8
Bugfix in NewsFleX_cb.c with thanks to Boris Jakubith for the patch.
And alfonsmc for fixing the error log.
Changes from -1.1.7
Static compiled executable included, that you can use on RedHat and egcc systems.
The compilation on RedHat is OK, but there are still problems with the xforms lib.
Changes from -1.1.4
Now compiling without errors on egcs-2.91.66 (RedHat 6.1).
Changes from -1.1.3
MIME version header added in postings.
Changes from -1.1.1
NewsFleX is now released under the GPL.
Any donations will of cause still be welcome.
Changes from -1.1.0
The date is now printed in the Date: header line with the century: 2000 (and not 00).
Changes from -1.0.8
You will be asked if you want to continue if you are trying to send an already send message.
Changes from -1.0.7
Now the posting editor has a frame, so you can drag it to where you want.
Changes from -1.0.6
Long references lines are now trimmed according to rfc1036-new-draft.
This implies the 6th entry is removed, the last 9 entries will be left present.
I have also limited the maximum number of entries to less then 20.
Header lines are folded if longer then about 800 bytes.
Changes from -1.0.5
Show marked URL's only button in url form, pressing this shows only URL's marked for retrieval.
Nice to quickly check which ones are marked, if you have thousands.
Alert shown when an invalid path/filename is given in export article only,
and export article + header.
Some improved modification of URL translation to local data base in scripts and frames.
Changes from -1.0.4
2 simple macros are added for the posting editor, $NAME and $TIME.
The encryption now works better.
You can view the unencrypted (before you encrypted) message at any time.
This all assumes you are using a secure machine.
If there are requests, I will make it possible to switch this feature off in a later version.
Changes from -1.0.3
Labeling group list after delete all not locked articles in subscribed groups added.
Changes from -1.0.2
Fixed the segfault that could happen during moving current databases.
Changes from -1.0.1
Bugfix segfault in search.
URL's browser now allows for individual setting of get pictures, host only, depth and daily.
This last one is a new feature, useful if you want to get the close prices of the stock market for example.
Changes from -1.0.0
Fixed bug that caused program to go in loop while getting new headers
after subscribing to a new groups in insert headers offline mode.
Search now searches all databases, both for articles and postings.
Host only routines rewritten, this should work now.
Redraw screen upon pressing html decode button only when article body shown.
User configurable colors added.
~/.NewsFleX/setup/colors holds examples.
Some colors can be changed, some not.
The configuration is only read when you start NewsFleX.
I will try to add more examples, and increase the amount of configure-ability.
Changes from -0.8.6
Memory allocation bug fixed, that caused program to segfault sometimes
if an URL was added to the url list.
Went through all malloc() 's, made some changes.
Hope I did not screw up anything else.
Vertical position html file now approximated if anchor.
That is, anchors (more or less) work.
Vertical position in url history remembered.
Changes from -0.8.5
This one finally has it, the little button in the top right 'N' or 'H'.
'H' selects the html decoder, so you can view documents with all them tags
<...> in it, a bit a la Lynx.
All this as normal text though.
Changes from -0.8.4
I have finally linked against xforms-0.88, this causes the page up / down
keys not to work in some cases.
This may also have implications for those who use NewsFleX on Linux 1.2.13,
since I moved to 2.0.30, and am no longer testing on 1.2.13.
In case this causes problems, and you do not want to part with Linux 1.2.13,
let me know, maybe I can make a separate version linked against xforms-0.86,
since that seems to work OK on 1.2.13.
The internal web browser (offline) is beginning to take shape,
it is not (yet) intended for online use.
It is only intended to read text from web documents that are automatically
downloaded.
However pictures and other links will start the relevant helper program,
so at least theoretically you could dump your web browser (this is a bit a
la Lynx).
Well, eh, I tried to implement tables, these things need more testing,
just me playing around.
Probably you could cut and paste URL's from the internal browser to the URL
list, leave out the .NewsFleX/http prefix, the idea is that this later is
done automatically, but due to holidays I have not been writing much code.
Changes from -0.8.3
URL LIST layout changed.
Some buttons changed.
Changes from -0.8.2
Automatic retrieval of URL's:
Once you added an URL to the URL list, it is possible to get these URL's
automatically and store these on the local disk, without the help of any
other program.
To get URL's automatically:
Select WINDOW
Select URL LIST from the window pull down menu.
In the URL list double click on the URL you want, so it becomes purple.
(Purple indicates marked for retrieval).
Do this for all URL's in the URL list you want to retrieve.
Then press ACCEPT in the URL list.
Now select ONLINE.
Then from the ONLINE pull down menu select GET MARKED URL's.
Now NewsFleX will go online and get all marked URL's and store these
on disk.
If you had the PICTURES button pressed in the URL list it will get all
pictures also.
If you had the RECURSIVE button pressed in the URL list it will also follow
all links in the first document, all links in any .html document these
links point to, so basically (if you are lucky) (or not lucky, to not have
that much disk space), all the world wide web.
NewsFleX keeps a list of retrieved URLS's, to prevent it from going into
a loop if two documents point to each other.
It will only get a specific URL once.
*Warning* Better use this recursive option with great care.
Host only button to be implemented.
Reading URL's ofline:
Once URL'S have been stored on disk, you can read them offline with
any web browser (for example Netscape).
The procedure is as follows:
Select WINDOW
Select URL LIST from the window pull down menu.
Select EXTERNAL BROWSER
Select BR OFFLINE
Make sure you web browser is running (start Netscape).
Double click with the *RIGHT* mouse button on the URL you want to view.
Netscape will display it as a file on local disk.
Note that you can see if a URL is present, then it will be blue in the
URL browser.
Once you have accessed it, it will become black.
If you tried to read it of line (while it was not there), its entry
will turn purple (marked for retrieval).
Double clicking again will unmark it again.
If you had deleted the file your self, the entry will become purple again,
marked for retrieval again.
Unmarking (without activating the browser) is possible by double clicking
with the LEFT mouse button on the entry in the URL list.
Double clicking again will mark it for retrieval.
**IMPORTANT**
getting many URL's offline, especially if you have the PICTURES and
RECURSIVE mode activated, will get many files on disk.
Check ~/.NewsFleX/http/ and ~/.NewsFleX/ftp/ directory trees
every now and then, and clear these after you copied the files (especially
the ftp'ed files) to a safe place.
Else your disk will be filled up with web pages gradually.
READING URL'S ONLINE:
The procedure is as follows:
Select WINDOW
Select URL LIST from the window pull down menu.
Select EXTERNAL BROWSER
Select BR ONLINE
Make sure you web browser is running (start Netscape).
Make sure your net connection is present (ppp must be running).
Double click with the *RIGHT* mouse button on the URL you want to view.
Netscape will try to get it display it.
The entry will now become black in the URL list (accessed).
So the general rule is:
Also: delete in the url form deletes the entry, BUT NOT ANY FILES.
These will still be in the ~/.NewsFleX/ftp or ~/.NewsFleX/http/ tree.
Re: in mail reply, copy to news groups in mail reply.
error reporting and handling improved.
get host by address added.
Get marked URLS now implemented for http and ftp.
URL form colors completely changed, so we can mark for retrieval.
Added GET MARKED URLS in ONLINE pull down menu.
Added EXT BROWSER / INT BROWSER button in url form.
Added NORMAL / RECURSIVE button in url form.
Added PICTURES / NO PICTURES button in url form.
Added BR ONLINE / BR OFFLINE button in url form.
Now, if new server period is created, the articles marked for follow thread
and follow subject are copied to the new current data base, so they will
still be retrieved automatically.
Note:
When is offline web page reading useful?
To demonstrate this, select WINDOW, then URL LIST.
Enter http://www.cnn.com/QUICKNEWS/ in the bottom input field, then press ADD.
Now double click with the left mouse button on the created entry in the
list (it will become purple).
Press the INT BROWSER button, so it will become green and reads EXT BROWSER.
Press the NO PICTURES button, so it becomes yellow and reads PICTURES.
Fill in '0' (without the quotes) in the Depth input field.
Press the HOST ONLY button, so it becomes orange and reads ALL.
Press ACCEPT.
From the ONLINE pull down menu, select the option GET MARKED URLS
NewsFleX will go online and get all the news and pictures in www.cnn.com/QUICKNEWS.
Now, later, offline, select WINDOW, then URL LIST.
Make sure you have started Netscape.
Double click with the RIGHT mouse button on the URL.
Now Netscape will display the URL including the pictures.
In the same way you can also FTP.
Back to the NewsFleX homepage