What is JavaNews ?
JavaNews is a free News-Reader written in Java
( you might have guessed it ! ).
If you don't know what Java is, first start here.
It uses the JDK 1.1.x and Swing 1.1 APIs.
This is the second public release and it must be considered as
Alpha software. That means you'll find bugs and only a subset of the features
that will be available in the future :-(
In order to help me fix the problem you're discovering as fast as possible, please don't hesitate
to submit them.
What are JavaNews features ?
JavaNews is a news-reader software. That means you'll be able to :
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Connect to a news server and access the newsgroups the server has subscribed to.
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Subscribe/Unsubscribe to newsgroup(s).
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Read article(s) from a newsgroup.
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Reply to articles ( in the news, by mail or both ).
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Post new articles to newsgroup(s).
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JavaNews currently sorts articles by date but it should be improved soon ( see next releases ).
JavaNews is using Java power so it is a multi threaded software.
What do i need to run JavaNews ?
You will need Java runtime environment ( 1.1.x or later ) & swing ( JFC ) 1.1
| The JDK : |
For Solaris, Windows ( 32 bits ) & Macintosh platforms, this can be found at Sun's.
For Linux, you can find a good port of the JDK ( thanks a lot to the porting team ) at the
Java-Linux site.
For other Operating Systems you're on your own, check out the search engines or the News.
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| Swing 1.1 |
Can be found at Sun's
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Important :
In order to compile and run JavaNews, you'll need to have the swing classes ( swing.jar ) into your CLASSPATH.
How do i download JavaNews ?
That's the easy part...
The currently available version is 1.0 Alpha 4
JavaNews is available in either binary or source and in three formats, choose the one that feets your needs from this directory.
How do i install JavaNews ?
Move the file you've downloaded into the target directory.
Extract the files from the archive ( unzip JavaNews.zip , tar xvzf JavaNews.tgz, zcat JavaNews.tar.Z | tar xvf - ).
Install swing ( JFC ) if it's not already done.
Then change your CLASSPATH environment variable in order to include the JavaNews.jar archive that
has been created and also include the swing.jar ( from the swing distribution ).
After that, just execute the magic command : java JavaNews ( that means
you must start your Java interpreter with the JavaNews argument ).
Note : this example supposes you know how to start a java application. If you
don't, please refer to your JDK documentation or check out
Sun's.
How do i set up JavaNews ?
At the first launch of JavaNews, you'll need to set-up JavaNews for your system. To do
so, you'll need to select the Options->Configuration->Hosts menu and then :
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In the News Host field, enter the address of your News server.
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In the News Port field, enter the Port on which the News server is listening ( in most cases or if you don't know what it means, leave it to default ).
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In the Mail Host field, enter the address of the host that is sending mail for you.
On Unix it may be your host but otherwise set it to the address your using in your mail sotfware.
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After that you'll need to set up the Identity options in Options->Configuration->Identity menu :
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Enter your full name.
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Enter your EMail address. Be careful, this is the address that will be used to reply to you so
it must be a valid address.
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Enter the name of your organization.
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Set-up the Path to your Signature file.
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After that, you're all set. You can retrieve the full Newsgroups list by selecting the
NewsGroups->Retrieve All Groups option.
Author, Copyright & Disclaimer
This software is Copyrighted ©
Charles-Edouard RUAULT 1996-1999.
However you can use it and distribute it freely.
It is provided As Is. It is to be used
at your Own Risks.
I shall not be liable in any way in case of damage or trouble
caused directly or indirectly by the use of this software.
What will i find in the next realeases ?
This realease is not a fully functionnal release, as an example, those
features are planned to be included in future realeases :
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Article Threading.
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Improved UI :
Use toolbars : i'm looking for someone who could create nice icons for the toolbar. I you want to help me, please email me.
Change whatever you feel needs to be changed : i'm waiting for your suggestion... |
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MIME support. ( most of the code is ready ).
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Include a full featured mail reading function.
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If you have any suggestions concerning the features you'd like to find
in JavaNews, let me know !
How do i submit a bug ?
If you think you've found a bug ( which is quite possible ), first check out in the
Known Bugs section that the problem is new.
Then send me a bug-report.
To do so, E-Mail me the maximum
of information concerning your problem, including :
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The environement you're using ( Operating System, Java interpreter version, libraries version ... ).
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The JavaNews version you're using ( can be found in Help->About menu ).
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A description of your problem ( as clear as possible ).
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The exact operation sequence to make it happen.
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If possible, the output generated by the program.
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And everything that might be useful for debugging.
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Known problems
If you think you've found a bug, don't hesitate to submit it.
For now, here is a list of known bug in the current version.
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At first lauch, when used with JDK 1.1beta1, a Null pointer exception arises at launch time.
This is due to an uninitialized property. There is a workaround :
create a ~/.JNewsrc with the line Signature=path_to_your_signature
Then, restart JavaNews.
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When the newsgroup list is huge, it takes a very long time to build the newsgroup tree ( for 32k newsgroups it takes about 6 minutes on a P200 running Linux). This is mainly a JTree performance problem from swing. I'm aware of this problem and i'm trying to find out a workaround.
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Source Code
Last modified :
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