New features in release 6.3 (compared to release 6.1.5): -------------------------------------------------------- Major improvements: NNTP support nn can now use/update .newsrc (to a limited extent) Presentation of article header can be customized Full macro support Full folder maintenance Completion help available using '?' key Backup of rc file works! Much faster nngoback - not based on history file. Changes in standard key mappings: reading mode Z -> goto-menu reading mode N -> next-group reading mode p -> previous (was print) reading mode P -> print (was previous) New commands: leave-article :define :man :map both ... :patch :pwd :rmail :show groups unsub New variables: backup (New functionality! It is set by default) confirm-append default-save-file delay-redraw header-lines mail mail-format mark-overlap newsrc overlap patch-cmd quick-save retry-on-error save-report word-key New options: -m -s/ (regexp matching) Description of new features (in mixed order): --------------------------------------------- NNTP support has been added (thanks to Rene Seindal @ diku.dk). Online manual. Regular expression search in reading mode: / and . Regular expression matching for subjects in -s/ option and G=/ command. Articles can be saved in a mail compatible format by setting the mail-format variable. The article selection save files are now kept in network format if NETWORK_DATABASE is defined, so reading news from different machines should now work in a heterogeneous environment. Added $F which expands to the group name with / instead of . E.g. $F in rec.music.synth produces rec/music/synth Folder name "+" is expanded to the file name found in the new default-save-file variable (default +$F). When saving articles, the prompting for a file name can be disabled by setting the quick-save variable (saving will be done in the default save file). nn will ask for confirmation before appending to existing files when confirm-append is set. The message after each save can be disabled by unsetting the save-report variable. The manual has been corrected to use the proper names for the mail-record and news-record variables. :unshar will create the directory if is does not exist. Customized article header presentation through setting of header-lines variable. Complete variable settings are now shown by :set Full macro support - you can now bind any sequence of commands to a single key (see the define command). Individual articles in a folder can now be cancelled! I.e. folders are now fully supported: you can save, print, respond to, and cancel separate articles in the folders created by nn. (Try the G +folder command). A global init file is now supported rather than just a global sequence file. (You should avoid using the sequence file, because it might go away in a future release.) Nn will now remember which articles you have seen on the menu (but not necessarily selected) when you quit. Confirming the question "use old selections" now also implies that nn will start on the same menu page as the one you quitted on. There is a retry-on-error variable which can be set to a number of times attempts to open an article should be done before giving up. You can now specify per group default save files in the init file (in the group sequence). S+ is an addition to the old S* command which saves all the selected articles in the group! When you have given a command that clears the screen, the screen is now redrawn by default when the command terminates. To get the 6.1 behaviour (prompt for a new : command), you must set the delay-redraw variable. When input completion is possible, you can now use the ? key to get a list of the possible completions. Completion is now possible when entering an extended command (:command) - both for the command name itself and the arguments. (The only exception is when entering the VALUE of a variable.) The 'backup' variable now works "the right way": It makes a backup of the rc file on start-up. nn can then update the rc file after reading each group (increased security), and still restore the old rc file with the :q! command. The backup variable is now set by default. You can set the 'mail' variable to make nn check for the arrival of mail, and you can use the ':rmail' command to read the mail! (But it is not a full mail interface, e.g. you cannot delete messages, cc: fields are not supported if you reply to a message, etc.) nn will now synchronize with the .newsrc file if the "newsrc" variable is set. However, it does NOT understand about individual articles that are marked as unread (e.g. 5-8 in 1-4,9-24) - it will silently mark such articles as read (e.g. read the above as 1-24). I don't know anybody who uses this, but if somebody wants to improve on it, feel free to do it. If you just want to to use rn from time to time, the current support will be sufficient if you always read all the articles in a group once you have started reading it (or you read the articles in the normal article number order). When saving an article with a full or partial header in a folder, legal article header lines in the body of the article are now escaped with a tilde, e.g. ~From: ....., to avoid having the articles split improperly when the folder is later opened by nn. There is a new C)onf command to nnadmin to print the current configuration (directories, files, network, etc.). The G (goto-group) command now allows you to jump to an unread group in the group sequence without entering a new recursive menu level. The manual nn.1 has been clarified regarding the effect of options: The init file is read prior to parsing the options, and the options will TOGGLE the CURRENT value of boolean variables. Removed backwards compatibility ------------------------------- Support for upgrading from release 3, 4, or 5 has been removed, since the sites using these releases have all updated to 6.1. Also the support for pre 2.11 news has been removed (OLD_NEWS).