README file for njn (v0.01) - last updated on July 30, 2000.

njn (the njn Java newsreader) is, well, a Java newsreader.  A crude one.  
Right now it has very little functionality.

This is version 0.01 of njn; it uses the Java AWT interface toolkit.  I 
started writing this program way back in 1997, as an experiment in 
networking sockets and protocols.  

It is loosely modelled after both ProNews/2 and knews.  This, the original
AWT version, is probably closer in look and feel to the latter.

I basically abandoned this version mid-1999 in order to rewrite the whole
thing using the Swing toolkit.  Version 0.02 and higher use Swing and are more
closely based on the look and feel of ProNews/2.

Since, at the time of writing, version 0.02 is much less complete, I figured
I'd release version 0.01 to any who are curious.  (Also, the Swing versions
are somewhat slower to run.)  The license is GPL, so feel free to play with
the code, or even start developing it in earnest if you really want...


What works:

Not much.  You actually can use this to read newsgroups, but it's not a very
fulfulling experience.  :)  It's probably also quite buggy.

You can set a number of preferences by hand-editing the configuration file 
njn.cfg - examine that file or Config.java to see what's possible.  There is 
no other way to set configuration options.  (However, if the 'njn.cfg' file
does not exist, njn will automatically create one with default settings,
which it writes on exit.)

Also, the only way to subscribe newsgroups is to hand-edit the newsrc file,
which is in standard UNIX newsrc format.  (For those who don't know, a '!'
after the newsgroup name indicates that the group is not subscribed; a ':' 
after it means it is subscribed.)

There is basically no multi-threading.  You can only have one newsgroup open
at a time.  There are no niceties like progress indicators (although I did
try to start writing one... it never really worked).


Running:

To run, call 'java' with njnawt.jar file in the CLASSPATH; e.g.

    java -classpath c:\Java11\lib\classes.zip;njnawt.jar njn.NjnAWT

or whatever (modified for your own system, obviously).


Compiling:

Source code is included.  The javac program handles dependencies
automatically, so there's no Makefile.  Just 'javac NjnAWT.java', and the
application should build properly.  Of course, you need a Java compiler...

The code shouldn't be too hard to follow, and is even mostly commented.  
(Aren't I considerate?)


Author:

Alex Taylor - alextaylor41@home.com or alex@eddie.cis.uoguelph.ca
http://eddie.cis.uoguelph.ca/~alex

The current release of njn should be at
    http://eddie.cis.uoguelph.ca/~alex/program/njn


njn is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License.  Refer to
the file 'LICENSE' for more details.