To bring the best of the Mac and PowerMac technology to Mac users, I added gb<->hz, gb<->big5, big5<->hz conversion to the popular Yet Another NewsWatcher. Yet Another NewsWatcher is a much enhanced news group reader programmed by Brian Clark. The new features include anonymous posting, more server commands, filtering, and auto-encode in binary posting, just to name a few. With Brian's kindly help and his latest source code, I added several new menu under the Special menu to toggle the Mac-Latin1, GB-HZ, GB-Big5, Big5-HZ, Big5-GB text filters on the fly. The only part which is inferior to the VA NewsWatcher v2.0b27 to this date is the auto font and script selection. But because the Chinese filter selection is now located in the Special menu, the switching is on the fly, I am still not quite convinced that an auto switching is necessary. The hz <-> gb conversion is based on HZ 2.0 with a lot of modifications. In the hz to gb converion, any escape sequence, such as ~{, ~}, ~}~^M, is replaced with an equal numbers of space so that the group title can be displayed properly. The gb to hz conversion automatical truncates the long gb paragraph to ~71 char/line to avoid trouble when the generated hz is displayed in other type of terminals. The gb<->big5 conversion is borrowed from MacBlue Telnet. Combined with the HZ 2.0, we have the big5<->hz conversion available. System requirement is a Mac with system 7 or higher. CLK is requirement for Chinese input and display. A home-made MacOS 7.5 should work, too. For any bug report concerning Chinese coding as well as any suggestions, please contact Xiaolin Zhao at xlz@chem.lsa.umich.edu. I will try my best to kill bugs and implement more features if demand is high. This program is programmed in a C660av Mac/28MB RAM/1GB HD. System: Mac OS 7.5.1/CLK 1.1.1. It was tested on both 68k and PPC Mac with system 7.5.1. Xiaolin Zhao/University of Michigan, Chemistry, 9/1995 From original YA-NewsWatcher readme: This is a *beta* version of NewsWatcher, not a final *production* version 2.0. You are certainly welcome to try this beta version, and use it if you like it, but you should be aware that it is not yet finished, polished, or error-free. Yet Another NewsWatcher is free. It may not be sold for profit or included with software or other products which are sold for profit without the permission of Northwestern University, but otherwise you should feel free to use it and redistribute it. Yet Another NewsWatcher is being developed by Brian Clark, based on the original NewsWatcher application by John Norstad and Value-Added NewsWatcher by Brian Clark, David Brewster and Bob Boonstra. Please report any problems you find to the author, but PLEASE read the NewsWatcher manual and the Yet Another NewsWatcher readme files FIRST. mailto:baclark@wwa.com The anonymous FTP site for the Yet Another NewsWatcher program, the Filter Converter utility and YA-Base64 helper applications is: ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/mac/internet/USENET.TOOLS/ya-newswatcher/ For information on Value-Added NewsWatcher contact: mailto:brewster@bis.trw.com mailto:boonstra@ultranet.com The anonymous FTP sites for the Value-Added NewsWatcher program and the CodeWarrior C source code are: ftp://grocne.enc.org/pub/V.A.NewsWatcher/ ftp://ftp.ultranet.com/pub/boonstra/V.A.NewsWatcher/ The anonymous FTP site for the original NewsWatcher program, the user document, and the CodeWarrior C source code is: ftp://ftp.acns.nwu.edu/pub/newswatcher/ The helper programs used by NewsWatcher (all 3 versions) are available via anonymous FTP at: ftp://ftp.acns.nwu.edu/pub/newswatcher/helpers/ except for YA-Base64 as noted above NewsWatcher (all 3 versions) requires a Macintosh running System 7.0 or later with 2.5 megabytes or more of memory and a hard drive. The Mac must be connected to the Internet, and MacTCP or Open Transport must be properly installed and configured. NewsWatcher (all 3 versions) is distributed as a Òfat binaryÓ. This means that it runs in native 68K mode on Motorola 68K Macintoshes, and it runs in native PowerPC mode on Power Macintoshes. For dialup use, NewsWatcher (all 3 versions) works with the various SLIP and PPP programs, and with ARA together with an appropriately configured AppleTalk/IP gateway. It is strictly an online newsreader, and it does not support any other kind of dialup connection. The program requires an active full TCP/IP connection to the Internet. It does not support offline newsreading, and it does not support older kinds of dialup connections designed primarily for simple terminal emulation. We have no plans to add these features soon, if at all. If you need an offline newsreader or a newsreader which works with older kinds of dialup connections, you must use some other program. The original NewsWatcher was written by John Norstad of Northwestern University: mailto:j-norstad@nwu.edu If you have a comment, question, or suggestion about Yet Another NewsWatcher, please read the user documents for the program before writing to any of the authors. Most questions are answered in John Norsdat's user document for the original NewsWatcher. In particular, see the ÒGetting StartedÓ chapter for basic instructions on how to use the program, and see Appendix F for a list of ÒFrequently Asked QuestionsÓ (FAQs) and their answers. If you donÕt have a copy of the user document, you can get it via anonymous FTP. Hold down the Command key and click anywhere in the following line: ftp://ftp.acns.nwu.edu/pub/newswatcher/user-doc.postcard.sea.hqx Additional information is contained in the various user documents that accompany Yet Another NewsWatcher. Before writing to any of the authors, also please check the FTP site to make certain you have the most recent version of the program. For information on licensing the original NewsWatcher for commercial use (e.g., for inclusion with other commercial software, products, publications, or services), contact Andy Rosenau of Northwestern University: mailto:ar@nwu.edu The program is based on the original version 1.0.2 written by Steve Falkenburg of Apple Computer. John Werner of Taligent is a major contributor. Thanks also to the following people who helped test development and beta versions, helped with design discussions, and/or helped with code contributions: Apple DTS, Steven Carmody, Steve Dorner, Adam Engst, Ron Flax, Aaron Giles, Haydn Huntley, Steve Klingsporn, Jean-Pierre Kuypers, Robert Lentz, Peter Lewis, Jim Matthews, Andrea Norstad, Jeremy Norstad, Lasse Hiller¿e Petersen, Andr Pirard, Quinn, Howard Rafal, Pete Resnick, Craig Richmond, Larry Rosenstein, Leonard Rosenthol, Jeroen Scheerder, Michael Shappe, Eric Slosser, Stephan Somogyi, Neal Trautman, Dean Yu, Mahboud Zabetian, Willem Nijenhuis, and the nice people on comp.sys.mac.comm. Special thanks to Steve Dorner, both for his advice and assistance, and for his ÒEudoraÓ mail program, which has served as a consistent source of inspiration for NewsWatcher in particular and as a standard of excellence for Macintosh Internet software in general. NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, BRIAN CLARK, DAVID BREWSTER, and BOB BOONSTRA PROVIDE YET ANOTHER NEWSWATCHER AS IS, WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OR PROMISE OF TECHNICAL SUPPORT. NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, BRIAN CLARK, DAVID BREWSTER, and BOB BOONSTRA DISCLAIM ANY LIABILITY OF ANY KIND FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM THE USE OF YET ANOTHER NEWSWATCHER, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT OR SPECIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, EVEN IF NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, OR BRIAN CLARK, OR DAVID BREWSTER, OR BOB BOONSTRA ARE AWARE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, BRIAN CLARK, DAVID BREWSTER, and BOB BOONSTRA MAKE NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO THE PROGRAM, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Portions Copyright © 1993 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Portions Copyright © 1994-1995 Northwestern University. Portions Copyright © 1994-1995 David Brewster. Portions Copyright © 1994-1995 J. Robert Boonstra. Portions Copyright © 1994-1995 Brian Clark.