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From: berger@datacube.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted
Subject: Re: Bulletin Board Software
Message-ID: <104600002@datacube>
Date: Mon, 12-Jan-87 12:10:00 EST
Article-I.D.: datacube.104600002
Posted: Mon Jan 12 12:10:00 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Jan-87 20:41:41 EST
References: <802@pyrltd.UUCP>
Lines: 231
Nf-ID: #R:pyrltd.UUCP:-80200:datacube:104600002:000:10033
Nf-From: datacube.UUCP!berger    Jan 12 12:10:00 1987


May I suggest Notes.  This is a user i/f that I find much nicer to use
than these teletype style interfaces such as BIX and Compuserve (and news!)
PS. We run it on our Pyramid...
Here's the Man page, It includes a mail address for more info, or contact
me directly:

NAME
     notes, autoseq, readnotes - a news system

SYNOPSIS
     notes [ -sxin ] [ -o date-spec ] [ -a subsequencer ] [ -t
     termtype ] [ -f file ] topic1 [ ... ]

     autoseq [ -a subsequencer ]

     readnotes [ -a subsequencer ]

DESCRIPTION
     Notes supports computer managed discussion forums.  It coor-
     dinates access to and updates of data bases of notes and
     their responses.  A single notesfile contains an ordered
     list of base notes, each of which may have an ordered list
     of responses associated with it.  A note string consists of
     a base note and all of its responses.  Separate notesfiles
     contain discussions on separate subject matters; microcom-
     puters might be discussed in a ``micronotes'' notesfile
     while bicycling enthusiasts make their comments in a ``bicy-
     cle'' notesfile.

     The -s option signals notes to use the automatic sequencer.
     With the sequencer enabled, notes shows the new notes and
     responses since your last entry into that notesfile.  With
     the sequencer enabled by -s the notes program will not enter
     notesfiles which have no new text.  Specify -x to use the
     sequencer and enter notesfiles even if they have no new
     text.  The -i and -n options are still more sequencing
     modes, -i is similar to -s but shows the index page instead
     of the first modified note.  -n turns the sequencer off.

     The -o option helps users find articles that are vaguely
     remembered with terms such as ``some note in the last 3 days
     in one of several notesfiles''.  These can be found with a
     command like:

          notes -o "3 days ago" nf1 nf2 nf3

     which sequences past all articles written in notesfiles
     ``nf1'', ``nf2'', and ``nf3'' in the last 3 days.  The
     user's timestamps are not updated.

     The -a option specifies a subsequencer.  This allows several
     people sharing the same signon to maintain their own
     sequencer file.  The actual sequencer name is generated by
     concatenating the user name and the subsequencer name.  It
     is recommended that subsequencer names be unique within the
     first 6 characters.

     Specify -t termtype to override the TERM environment vari-
     able.  This switch is primarily for V6 systems.

     The -f option directs notes to read the contents of a file
     for a list of notesfiles to scan.  This file and the direc-
     tories must be readable by the notesfile user id.

     The topic list specifies which notesfiles are to be scanned.
     The notesfiles are scanned from left to right; upon finish-
     ing the first topic, the second is entered.  The shell's
     meta-characters are recognized within a topic but must be
     escaped to prevent shell interpretation.  Specifying
     ``net.*'' will yield all the notesfiles with the prefix
     ``net.''.  Specify ``*unix*'' to read all notesfiles with
     the string ``unix'' in their names.  Bracket and question
     mark constructs are also recognized.

     Notesfile names are parsed such that a notesfile will be
     entered only once no matter how many times it is listed on
     the command line and in any files specified by the -f
     option.  Notesfiles can also be excluded by prefixing their
     names with a `!'.  Thus to see all notesfiles except ``gen-
     eral'', one might type:

          notes "*" !general

     The autoseq and readnotes commands allow sequencing through
     a list of notesfiles with the sequencer enabled using with a
     single command.  Autoseq and Readnotes function identically.
     They are syntactically equivalent to ``notes -s $NFSEQ''.
     The environment variable NFSEQ contains a comma separated
     list of notesfile specifications.  A typical NFSEQ defini-
     tion for the Bourne shell looks like:

     NFSEQ=``general,announce,net.*,bicycle,srg,:/usr/essick/nflist''.

     Specifications beginning with a `:' specify a file to read
     for more notesfile names.  In the previous example, the last
     specification reads the contents of the file
     `/usr/essick/nflist' for more notesfile specifications.
     Many of these can appear in the NFSEQ variable.

     Notes and responses are entered by using an editor. The
     default editor is ed(1).  This can be changed by setting one
     of the environment variables NFED or EDITOR. Notes looks for
     NFED before looking for EDITOR, allowing users to use dif-
     ferent editors for writing notes and for other tools.

     Some commonly used commands within the notesfile system are
     listed below:

     space     Show the next page of the note/response.

     ;         Go the next response, if there are no more
               responses go to the next note.

     -         Go to the previous page of the current
               note/response.  From the first page of a response,
               go to the previous response (or the base note from
               the first response).  From the first page of a
               base note, go to the previous note.

     newline   Go to the next note.

     j         Jump to the next unread note/response (when using
               sequencer).

     J         Jump to the next unread note, ignoring any further
               responses in the current note string (when using
               sequencer).

     w         When issued from the index page enters a new note.
               When entered from a note/response display enters a
               response.  A capital-W will include the text of
               the currently displayed note/response in the new
               response.

     q         Leave the current notesfile.

     Q         Leave the current notesfile without updating the
               sequencer information.

     control-d Return to the shell, ignoring any further notes-
               files in the current invocation. No sequencer
               information is updated.

     x         Search for a note with the (prompted for) string
               in its title.  Capital-X asks for a new search
               string, otherwise the last entered string is used.

     s         Saves the currently displayed note/response at the
               end of a (prompted for) file.  Capital-S saves the
               entire note string.

     M         Sends the text of the note/response displayed and
               your comments  to another user(s).  The P command
               routes the letter to the author of the
               note/response.

     t         Issues a write(1) command to the author of the
               currently displayed note/response.  No action is
               taken if the note originated on a remote system or
               is anonymous.

     !         Forks a shell.

     Only the notesfile owner can create new notesfiles.  The
     notesfile owner will create the notesfile and turn control
     over to the person requesting the notesfile.  This person is
     the notesfile director; he may designate others to also be
     notesfile directors. The notesfile director has special
     privileges including: deleting any note, determining policy
     for the notesfile, permitting anonymous notes, and determin-
     ing accessibility of the notesfile.

     An interface is provided to news(1).  Transfers in both
     directions are supported.  See newsoutput(8) and the Notes-
     file Reference Manual for more information on this facility.

     Facilities for mailing to notesfiles ( nfmail(8) ), network-
     ing notesfiles ( nfxmit(8) ), printing notesfiles (
     nfprint(1) ), archiving old notes ( nfarchive(8) ), and
     several user routines ( nfabort(3) and nfcomment(3) ) exist.

     The concept of a notesfile was taken from the PLATO system
     (a trademark of Control Data Corporation) designed at the
     University of Illinois to provide automated teaching capa-
     bilities.

FILES
     /etc/passwd                                  for the users
                                                  name
     /etc/group                                   for the users
                                                  group(s)
     /etc/termcap                                 for terminal
                                                  capabilites
     /usr/spool/notes                             the default
                                                  notesfile data
                                                  base
     /usr/spool/notes/.utilities                  utility pro-
                                                  grams and
                                                  online help
     /usr/spool/notes/.sequencer/user             Sequencing
                                                  timestamps for
                                                  user.
     /usr/spool/notes/.sequencer/user:subsequencer
                                                  Sub-sequencing
                                                  timestamps for
                                                  user.

SEE ALSO
     checknotes(1), ed(1), mknf(8), news(1), newsoutput(8), nfa-
     bort(3), nfaccess(8), nfarchive(8), nfmail(8), nfpipe(1),
     nfprint(1), nfstats(1), nfxmit(8), nfcomment(3), notes(8),
     termcap(3), write(1),
     The Notesfile Reference Manual

AUTHORS
     Ray Essick (uiucdcs!essick, essick%uiuc@csnet-relay.arpa)
     Department of Computer Science
     University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
     Urbana, IL

     Rob Kolstad (kolstad@convex.UUCP)
     CONVEX Computer Corporation
     Richardson, TX

			Bob Berger 

Datacube Inc. 4 Dearborn Rd. Peabody, Ma 01960 	617-535-6644
	
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