Advice needed for software
 

I'm not sure if this belongs here or not but whatever.

I have gotten fed up with Outlook Express 5. It seems to lock up my computer with glee and nothing I do can change it.

I've switched to Eudora for my email client, but now I need something to replace the newsreader. Most of what I've found so far seems to be oriented towards the kind of person who spends a considerable amount of time posting pictures to the alt.binaries newsgroups and an equal or greater amount of time searching and downloading other pictures from all over. I do not.

I've been test-driving Xnews and NewsPro. So far I like Xnews better but it still has a few bad points.

I'm looking for one that will download the list of newsgroups upon first launch and SAVE IT! Then, allow me to set up a folder so that I can list my subscribed newsgroups SEPERATELY from the big honkin' list of all. Next, one that will download the messages in my chosen group, display the headers in a list and let me double-click (or something intuitive) to read those that I choose. A <NEXT> button is needed here so I can read the thread and not have to return to the list of headers and select the next one over and over. an option to combine and decode files that come in multiple messages (such as, ahem!, software files) without having to select five thousand messages and order them in a window the size of a postage stamp. Lastly, it has to run under Windoze 98 v4.1

I know all about the benefits of Linux and GNU/EMACS and someday I'll have a newer computer so I can run a real operating system. I'll accept that someone will tell me to switch but with three non-literate people in the house who share the computer with me, it's just not an option right now. They have enough trouble telling the taskbar from the status line, never mind a "button" from a "link".

Ideas, anyone?

Brian

Mozilla has a "communicator" component that does both email and news. The mail client is still not completely bug-free, especially for IMAP email servers, but it works well enough for me.

But it sounds like you're more interested in a standalone netnews reader for Windows. And I don't think Moz has any facilities for reassembling pr0n and warez files posted to netnews.

No help there. But I want my cake and eat it too. I'll accept a standalone prog if that's what I can get but I really want an all-in-one that will do it all without bugs.

It's not too much to ask from a Windows platform, is it?

Brian

Re: Advice needed for software
 

Try MicroPlanet Gravity.
(http://lightning.prohosting.com/~tbates/gravity/)

Gravity downloads a list of newsgroups, and allows you to search through them by keyword to find relevant groups. It puts the subscribed groups in the top block, listing how many headers have been downloaded and how many are server-side. You may retrieve some or all headers as you see fit, display them (by sender, thread, or date) and double-click to read an article. (I'm not sure about NEXT, but there may be a keyboard shortcut.)

Decoding is simple; highlight and hit CTRL-D, and if all the parts are there, it should shuffle them around properly. (If the headers are malformed, you can CTRL-M for Manual Decode and do the reorder-in-postage-stamp-window thing, but it's rarely needed.)

It works beautifully under Win98. It's freeware (MicroPlanet made it public-domain). Version 2.5 is the last official release, while Version 2.6 (Super Gravity) is a hack by an ex-MicroPlanet programmer that adds in support for yEnc decoding, among other things.

One caveat: go into its option tabs and disable the "Check for new version" checkbox, but that's a one-time thing.

I used to use Gravity 1.1 (bought it) and loved it; Gravity 2.5/2.6 blows that away in ease-of-use.

Now that's what I was looking for.

Great recommendation. I'll download it tonight and test drive it tomorrow.

It sounds like 2.6 is what I really need (a lot of files are now encoded with this yEnc stuff)

Thanks, VSP.

Brian

We have a winnah!
 

It seems that vsp's suggestion covers all the bases for what I need, although it is a bit complicated to use easily.

But in it's favor, it comes with a tutorial! I like that. A lot. Now all I have to do is go through ten thousand lessons on how to use the thing and I'll be set. One little thing, I need to spend more time learning rules. I wrote one to let me view pictures as part of the message instead of loading them into a directory. I thought. What I wound up doing was loading EVERY picture in the newsgroup and saving it to the directory. Not good. There was something like two hundred pictures there. And each and every one of them HAD to be displayed before I could get the program to stop.
And I did have to have chosen a porn site to use for an easy source of pictures, too. I'm lucky I only told it to decode .jpg and not also .jpeg, .gif, .rm, .mov, .mpg and the rest or I'd have been there all day. Next time I use the Dr. Who site for a source of pics. That only has maybe ten posts per day. I can handle that volume more easily and no danger of the kid wandering in and looking over my shoulder.

Thanks, vsp ole pal!

Brian