What is the best newsreader

  • Thread starter Thread starter Merlin D.Magician
  • Start date Start date
M

Merlin D.Magician

for viewing these post and not getting a page full of mixed letters and
numbers when we clicked on a picture,or file. Any advise would be
appreciated.
 
The voice of "J44xm" drifted in on the cyber-winds,
from the sea of virtual chaos...
Seconded. There is a bit of a learning curve, though. (Especially
for scoring.)
Click to expand...


The quantify...

Xnews has a many customizable features, and can be molded to suit your
downloading or news reading tastes, but there aren't many easy menus or
quick set-ups. You'll have to get your hands dirty and manually enter
some settings in the INI files directly to get the most out of Xnews.

You also need to learn Perl Compatible Regular Expressions (Pcre) in
order to get the most out of Xnews' dual method of filtering posts.
Xnews doesn't directly filter, watch, or ignore posts. For threads
you're interested in you need to "score" them with values between -9999
& 9999. You can then sort or hide these messages based on their score.

Pros:
- It's 100% free
- Extensive Regex scoring capabilities on any header
- Customizable interface (fonts, colors, and some menus)
- Use any edit program for posts
- Multiple Identities & Multiple servers
- Extensive per group settings

Cons:
- It's a memory hog (256MB recommended for binaries)
- Can cause crashes or stalls on some systems
- XP users enter at their own risk
- No spell checker

Download from: http://xnews.newsguy.com/
For more info: news:news.software.readers ("[Xnews]" posts)
 
Seconded. There is a bit of a learning curve, though. (Especially for
scoring.)
Click to expand...

Definitely. Get it at: http://xnews.newsguy.com/

And yes, scoring is a little tricky, but there is
an automated way to do it for simple tasks
(under "article" , "add to score file").
Also, I know of no other reader that is as powerfull...
(and totally free too!)
 
[""; Mon, 24 Nov 2003 03:43:58 GMT]
Also, I know of no other reader that is as powerfull...
(and totally free too!)
Click to expand...

I should note, too, that it is apparently no longer in development. I
think there might be major bug fixes (if needed), but it's basically dead.
Fortunately, it's pretty well put-together anyway.
 
[""; Mon, 24 Nov 2003 03:43:58 GMT]
Also, I know of no other reader that is as powerfull...
(and totally free too!)
Click to expand...

I should note, too, that it is apparently no longer in development. I
think there might be major bug fixes (if needed), but it's basically
dead. Fortunately, it's pretty well put-together anyway.
Click to expand...


What bugs? What is it about being finished that makes it "dead?" This is
reasoning I will never understand.
 
On 24 Nov 2003, Tech Zero wrote
The voice of "J44xm" drifted in on the cyber-winds,
from the sea of virtual chaos...
Seconded. There is a bit of a learning curve, though. (Especially for
scoring.)
Click to expand...


The quantify...

Xnews has a many customizable features, and can be molded to suit your
downloading or news reading tastes, but there aren't many easy menus or
quick set-ups. You'll have to get your hands dirty and manually enter
some settings in the INI files directly to get the most out of Xnews.

You also need to learn Perl Compatible Regular Expressions (Pcre) in
order to get the most out of Xnews' dual method of filtering posts.
Xnews doesn't directly filter, watch, or ignore posts. For threads
you're interested in you need to "score" them with values between -9999
& 9999. You can then sort or hide these messages based on their score.

Pros:
- It's 100% free
- Extensive Regex scoring capabilities on any header
- Customizable interface (fonts, colors, and some menus)
- Use any edit program for posts
- Multiple Identities & Multiple servers
- Extensive per group settings

Cons:
- It's a memory hog (256MB recommended for binaries)
- Can cause crashes or stalls on some systems
- XP users enter at their own risk
- No spell checker

Download from: http://xnews.newsguy.com/
For more info: news:news.software.readers ("[Xnews]" posts)
Click to expand...

I am using it with XP and have never has a millicenton's trouble with it.
(Yeah, yeah - I know - famous last words).

The only gripe I have - and it is a minor one - is that I can find no way
of flagging a thread I find interesting as "to be watched" ... or am I
missing something (apart from a brain)?
 
The only gripe I have - and it is a minor one - is that I can find
no way of flagging a thread I find interesting as "to be watched"
... or am I missing something (apart from a brain)?
Click to expand...

I right click the small folder symbol at the start of the thread, this
marks the thread as "keep" and by default gives all messages a score of
8888. It doesn't mark each new message as "keep" but is easy to
identify the threads that I wish to watch.
Works for me. :)
 
The voice of "J44xm" drifted in on the cyber-winds,
from the sea of virtual chaos...
Click to expand...

Only if you want to do that. Xnews works pretty well out of the box.
But once you get the hang of it, scoring is worth while.
Xnews doesn't directly filter, watch, or ignore posts. For threads
you're interested in you need to "score" them with values between -9999
& 9999. You can then sort or hide these messages based on their score.
Click to expand...

Xnews has preset scores to watch or ignore threads. They're at the bottom
of the Add to score file dialogue box.
Pros:
- It's 100% free
- Extensive Regex scoring capabilities on any header
- Customizable interface (fonts, colors, and some menus)
- Use any edit program for posts
- Multiple Identities & Multiple servers
- Extensive per group settings

Cons:
- It's a memory hog (256MB recommended for binaries)
Click to expand...

???
I have used it to download binaries on a 64 MB system.
- No spell checker
Click to expand...

True, but not necessarily a bad thing.
People must not completely rely on a spell checker.

One other point: Xnews is an on-line reader. However, you can transfer
articles to an archive folder, close your connection and read/decode
messages from the archive off-line. This is off-line enough for most
people.
 
Download from: http://xnews.newsguy.com/
For more info: news:news.software.readers ("[Xnews]" posts)
Click to expand...

I am using it with XP and have never has a millicenton's trouble with
it. (Yeah, yeah - I know - famous last words).

The only gripe I have - and it is a minor one - is that I can find no
way of flagging a thread I find interesting as "to be watched"
Click to expand...

Article>add to score file
They're at the bottom of the window. Almost hidden. I had been using
Xnews for years before stumbling over them ;) .
 
On 24 Nov 2003, Onno wrote
Download from: http://xnews.newsguy.com/
For more info: news:news.software.readers ("[Xnews]" posts)
Click to expand...

I am using it with XP and have never has a millicenton's trouble with
it. (Yeah, yeah - I know - famous last words).

The only gripe I have - and it is a minor one - is that I can find no
way of flagging a thread I find interesting as "to be watched"
Click to expand...

Article>add to score file
They're at the bottom of the window. Almost hidden. I had been using
Xnews for years before stumbling over them ;) .
Click to expand...

Ah HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Thank you VERY much! As you say, a tad obscure.
 
for viewing these post and not getting a page full of mixed letters and
numbers when we clicked on a picture,or file. Any advise would be
appreciated.
Click to expand...
Might I suggest Microplanet Gravity, http://lightning.prohosting.com/
~tbates/gravity/ . It does all this when set up properly and if you
check out the open source news you can see that it has been released
open source, and development is already continuing on it.
HTH
Tully
 
["donutbandit"; Mon, 24 Nov 2003 07:22:43 GMT]
What bugs? What is it about being finished that makes it "dead?" This is
reasoning I will never understand.
Click to expand...

Bugs are reported in the newsreader newsgroup from time to time. I don't
think any software is ever "finished." I mean, it technically is if the
author no longer works on it; but if Xnews does everything that L.T.
wanted it to do, then it done indeed. But as Usenet grows and develops,
newer readers will in time lead to Xnews's obsolescence. Of course, one
can say this about _any_ software.

Argh -- too late for thinking. :-) Point taken, though.
 
I would second that, but why are you using Agent!! Same on you.
Click to expand...

I would third that. If you ask me that question.....some of us use
more than one newsreader. :-)

Regards, John.
 
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