This section of our introduction will show you how to:
Keep in mind that you can access help information about Tin in a variety of ways. From within Tin, type 'h' at any time to access Tin's on-line help instructions. From your World account's command line (at the 'world%' prompt), outside of Tin, you may access a manual page description of Tin by typing:
world% man tin(also from world% tin -h, also README,INSTALL, TODO and FTP files....) A third resource for help on using Tin is the Customer Support staff here at The World. Simply send email to staff@world.std.com, and we will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.
Now that you know how to obtain help if you should need it, you are ready to learn how to read Usenet Newsgroup articles. To invoke Tin, type:
world% tin
it will take a few moments to configure itself, after which it will
display a welcome window that outlines basic commands and instructions.
Press the
The top few lines of this screen identify the current level of Tin
that you are in. Specifically, the 'Group Selection' level, where
there are 6498 different newsgroups available for reading. Below
this general information, the first sixteen newsgroups are listed
and numbered, in the far left column, sequentially from one to
(eventually) 6498. The second column of information provides the
number of unread articles for each newsgroup. So, for example,
there are 35 articles that you could read for the newsgroup
rec.arts.theatre.plays, if you were so inclined. The third column
identifies each newsgroup by name.
At the bottom edge of each screen, regardless of the level you are
currently in, Tin will provide a menu of the various, relevant
commands options available to you. Because Tin's online help
information defines all command functions for each screen, they
won't be discussed here. But please note that the definitions
are available to you, and remember that to access them, press
the 'h' key, at any time, from inside Tin.
By default, Tin will highlight the first newsgroup entry on each
screen as, in our example, rec.arts.theatre.plays has been for the
'Group Selection' screen. To move to a different newsgroup on the
list, you may use your up and down arrow keys (or press the ' ' key
or 'j' key, respectively), which will move the cursor one newsgroup
at a time. To locate a specific newsgroup, Tin allows you to search
the entire list of newsgroups using a search pattern or keyword. Note
that this command option is listed on the command line, and is
activated by typing '/' (forward slash) which will then offer the
following prompt at the bottom of your screen:
Enter a keyword at this point and Tin will search the list of newsgroups
(1 through 6498) for any matches. If a match is found, Tin will
automatically move to and highlight it. For example, to locate a
newsgroup with 'help' in it's name, type 'help' at the 'Search
forwards' prompt. If the first match for this search pattern is not
wstd.help, press the '/' key and "RETURN" again until Tin locates
it in the list, or move to this newsgroup directly by pressing the
'/' key and then typing:
Group Selection (6498) h=help
1 35 rec.arts.theatre.plays
2 133 rec.music.celtic
3 gay-net.artikel
4 388 alt.humor.puns
5 65 comp.software.international
6 alt.0d
7 3056 rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5
8 125 bit.listserv.hungary
9 38 de.soc.jugendarbeit
10 126 alt.music.jethro-tull
11 14 alt.music.led-zeppelin
n=set current to n, "TAB"=next unread, /=search pattern, ^K)ill/select,
a)uther search, c)atchup, j=line down, k=line up, K=mark read, l)list thread,
|=pipe, m)ail, o=print, q)uit, r=toggle all/unread, s)ave, t)ag, w=post
To now open the wstd.help newsgroup and begin reading the 33 articles posted to it, press the "RETURN" key. A new screen will appear listing all wstd.help articles, and should look more or less like the following sample:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
wstd.help (10T 34A)
1 1 Help with .html files, please Dan Schelit
2 5 Tracking ftp usage Jan Cartron
3 1 .project files? Addam Fritz
4 2 Initialization string for 14400 Rose Woods
5 4 MS-Windows Communications Fred Savich
6 1 Tulsa Printer Tony Pepper
7 6 Delete? Miles Kilom
9 3 trninit help? Bob Soroz
10 1 A people finding service Jeffrey Pebble
n=set current to n, "TAB"=next unread, /=search pattern, ^K)ill/select,
a)uther search, c)atchup, j=line down, k=line up, K=mark read, l)list thread,
|=pipe, m)ail, o=print, q)uit, r=toggle all/unread, s)ave, t)ag, w=post
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As you can see, the format used to list the articles is similar
to that used at the 'Group Selection' level. The principle
difference is that here, each individual article is listed by
number, title and author. You`ll notice that next to the first,
farthest left column of numbers assigned to each article (in this
case 1-10), there is a second column of numbers. For example,
article numbered 2 in the first column, has a number 5 in the
second column. This number indicates how many responses a
particular posting has received. In Usenet jargon these are
called threads and technically represent the number of
postings relating (in theory) to the first message. In this
example there are 5 articles responding to Jan Cartron's message
about 'Tracking FTP usage.
---READING AN ARTICLE---To read a Usenet article from this group, simply move the cursor to it either by using your down arrow key, or pressing 'j' as indicated at the bottom of the screen. In our example this would highlight 'Tracking ftp usage' (what you may want to select will undoubtedly be different). Although you could press "RETURN" at this point to view that posting, hit 'l' (lower case L) instead. This will bring you to the 'Thread' level and will look something like this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thread (Tracking ftp usage)
0 + [ 16] Jan Cartron (foo@world.std.com)
1 + [ 26] Barry Shein (bzs@world.std.com)
2 + [ 50] John T Bones (jtbn@world.std.com)
3 + [ 8] Janet Cartron (foo@world.std.com)
4 + [ 41] Barry Shein (bzs@world.std.com)
5 + [ 9] Janet Carton (foo@world.std.com)
When travelling down through different levels the first message or group on the new level will be highlighted, so, to view the first message here, simply hit "RETURN" or "TAB". Your screen will now contain Cartron's original article. In addition to the text portion (what she wrote) which is easily identifiable, Tin presents information in the topmost few lines (the header), which would look more or less like this:
------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wed. 18 May 1994 11:28:38 wstd.help Thread 1 of 9 Lines 16 Tracking ftp usage 5 Responses foo@world.std.com Jan Cartron at The World Public Access Unix Brookline -------------------------------------------------------------------------The first piece of information gives you the date and time that her article was posted, followed by the group it was posted to. Next the 'Thread 1 of 9' informs you that you are reading the first of nine threads in the group wstd.help. The rest is pretty straight forward, giving you the number of lines in this response, what it's related to, whom and where it's from.
----Moving through the various levels-----
When you are finished reading the first response or screenful you can hit the "SPACE BAR" to move to the next article or page. When you are ready to move to another thread simply press 'q' to jump back one level. At that point you can either select another thread or jump back to the newsgroup level by pressing 'q' again. Repeated 'q' strokes will bring you back through the levels you've traveled, eventually you'll get all the way back to the world% prompt.
So far you have learned how to:
The next section covers the details of posting to a newsgroup while in Tin.
-- POSTING ARTICLES TO USENET --
This section will outline how to:
After you have started Tin with the command:
world% tinSelect and open the newsgroup wstd.test (if you don't know how that's done take a look at ..........), then move down to the article selection level. Once there you can type 'w' to start posting a message. Upon typing 'w' you will be presented with a few prompts, the first of which will look like:
Post subject [ ]>
As it states, this will be the subject of your posting. For our purposes the word 'test' will suffice, simply type 'test' and hit the "RETURN" key.
Next, your default editing program will appear on the screen. Pico is the most commonly used editor on The World so we'll use that in our example.
Once Pico is loaded your screen will look like this:
========================================================================= UW PICO(tm) 2.3 File: /home/ghar/.article Subject: test Newsgroups: wstd.test Organization: The World Public Access Unix Summary: Keywords:[ Read 7 lines ]
^G Get Help ^O WriteOut ^R Read File ^Y Prev Pg ^K Cut Text ^C Cur Pos ^X Exit ^J Justify ^W Where is ^V Next Pg ^U UnCut Text^T To Spell ========================================================================
The first line on this screen indicates which version of Pico is running and where it is creating a temporary version of the current file (here, the fictitious directory /home/ghar/.article). When you attempt these exercises, your home directory will be indicated in this location.
The header for this posting immediately follows. The first few lines "Subject", "Newsgroups:" and "Organization:" are automatically filled in. The "Organization" entry is followed by the "Summary:" and "Keyword:" entries, which are fairly self-explanatory and are also optional. The "Summary" field is displayed in some newsreaders, making it easier for people browsing the newsgroup to get a sense of what your posting is about without having to open it.
Underneath the header portion lies the body of the message. Whether you type in your article online or include a previously prepared file, this is the place it should go.
---POSTING A PREVIOUSLY PREPARED ARTICLE IN PICO---
The command for reading a file into Pico is simply control-r (that's the control key and the 'r' key pressed simultaneously). If you have previously ***uploaded*** a file, you would identify it for inclusion into the posting here. Specifically, after typing control-r, the "Insert file:" prompt will appear, simply enter the name of the file you intend to insert and hit the "RETURN" key, Pico will do the rest.
Whether you have typed out an article online or inserted a file of text for the article that you had uploaded previously, when finished editing you can exit Pico and start the final posting process by typing control-x (the control key and the 'x' pressed at the same time). Answer the "Save modified buffer" prompt with 'y' and hit "RETURN" when you see:
File Name to write : /yourhome/directory/.articleThe final prompt before the article is posted gives you the opportunity to q)uit, e)dit or p)ost the article, so you will always be given a final opportunity to change your mind before actually making the article public.
Once you've chosen to post the article, the time it takes for your article to appear in the newsgroup listing can vary greatly. It will take longer to show up if the group you are posting to is *moderated* and if the system (news.std.com) is particularly busy it can take a few hours (or more) for it to be posted.
---FOLLOW UP TO AN ALREADY POSTED ARTICLE---
The procedure for replying to a previously posted article does not vary greatly from that of *posting an article as outlined above. The primary difference is that you must be viewing an article to reply to it. If you'd like to test this, I suggest you go to wstd.test as explained in the *previous section.
After you have opened an article you can 'Follow-up' or reply to it by typing either 'f' or 'F'. Which one you chose depends on whether you would like to include the article you are responding to in your article. The 'f' (lower case F) command appends the previous message while 'F' doesn't, since this is just a question of preference what you use is entirely up to you.
The remaining steps of the 'Follow-Up' procedure is exactly that of finishing the *posting process, so please review that if necessary.
---DELETING A POSTING---
Tin also supports a feature that let's you delete (remove) an article or several that you or another person have posted. To delete an article that you have already posted, simply go to the group that contains the article and select it (either open it and view it or just select it with your arrow keys). Next simply type "D", that's capital "d", and the article will be removed. Note that even if the article was posted to a large number of sites, the delete option will do it's best to track it down and remove it from whichever sites it was posted to. It won't necessarily delete the article from 100% of the sites it was posted to but it will be as thorough as possible.
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