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DemoNews Reader
D e m o N e w s R e a d e r
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 1.44 - December 18, 1996
Copyright (C) 1995,96 Andrew Voss - All Rights Reserved
Looking for New Music!
----------------------
It's getting to be about time to change the sample music in DemoNews
Reader.. it could be your own! I am looking for something 30k or less,
and in S3M, XM, or MOD format. Send contributions to phoenix@hornet.org.
Required:
---------
- One 286+ PC running MS-DOS.
- One copy of DemoNews (issue #87 or later) or more, otherwise this program
is useless.
- A GUS to hear music. If you do not have one, you can still run DNReader
but without music.
Files Included (Size)
--------------
DNREAD.CFG 741 - DemoNews Reader configuration text-file
DNREAD.DOC 9,034 - This documentation
DNREAD.EXE 32,193 - DemoNews Reader program
FILE_ID.DIZ 244 - BBS file description
CMODTSR.EXE 18,293 - CapaMod TSR-player by Capacala
JUMP.XM 19,924 - "Jump Up and Down" by The Fear/Mistery -
sample music
ESTRELLA.S3M 31,384 - "Estrellas en la Playa" by Phoenix/Kosmic -
sample music
Before running, make sure you check the following!
---------------
- You are running DNReader in the current directory.
- Your DemoNews files are located in a directory specified on
the "PATH=" line of the DNREAD.CFG file. By default this will be the
current directory. You can specify up to 10 directories on this line.
- Your DemoNews files are named "DEMONEWS.xxx".
- If your issue #98 seems corrupt, put a "[" in front of "Music Contest 3
Thoughts" by Ryan Cramer. This has been fixed by Hornet.
- Any other screwups may be misformatting on Hornet's part: check the
DemoNews file to see if the proper dash-bracket headers exist.
Keys
----
Anywhere in DemoNews Reader:
F1/F2/F3/F4 - play song #1/2/3/4, as specified in DNREAD.CFG.
F5 - disable music
D - DOS Shell
Esc - exit to previous menu, DOS from the issue select screen.
In the issue selection and article selection screens:
Up/Down - next/previous issue/article
PgUp/PgDn - next/previous screen of issues/articles, if you see
a blinking arrow sign in the bottom right corner
Enter - select issue/article
S - cross-issue search for author or title
A - search again
When reading an article:
Up/Down - move up/down
PgUp/PgDn - move up/down one screen
Home/End - go to beginning/end of article
F - find word (case insensitive)
R - repeat find
M - mark text
Press M once to select the top row, then use the down
arrow/page down/end keys to choose the mark size, then
press M again to select the bottom row. Marked text shows
up literally (w/o color codes). With this mark you can
do the following:
W - write marked text to a file. If no text is marked the
whole article will be saved.
P - print marked text to the printer. If no text is marked
the whole article will be printed.
U - unmark text. Use this if you want to remark text in a
particular article (pressing Esc automatically unmarks).
G - get the file on the current row, from any of the file
review articles. You must have some kind of DOS FTP
program (like me :). The command line is set in
DNREAD.CFG. Make sure your FTP program has a command
that gets a file in BINARY format.
E - send email to address on current row. The command
line is set in DNREAD.CFG.
Color Codes
-----------
- Put words between the following punctuation marks to make them
show up in different colors (punct. marks replaced with spaces):
~ - light green ` - light red ^ - white
- Article codes (left 3 chars of top line):
=-[ or ==[ Section header ==- Color codes disabled
=-- Normal article =_- Color and underline codes disabled
Music
-----
For music, Capacala's CMODTSR has been included. This means a GUS
is required, and you can play XM, S3M or MOD files.
The following lines should be in your DNREAD.CFG file:
MUSIC1=[first song]
MUSIC2=[second song]
MUSIC3=[third song]
MUSIC4=[fourth song]
I have included two songs. You provide the other two.
To disable music, omit these lines from DNREAD.CFG or just erase the file.
Legal Stuff
-----------
The DemoNews Reader program and this manual are copyrighted by Andy Voss,
all rights reserved. The included music player and music, if copyrighted,
are so by their respective authors. No part of this package may be modified
or used in another file or document without the expressed written consent
of the author.
All files in the DemoNews Reader package may be copied and distributed
freely. For-profit use without a license is prohibited. Permission is
granted to CD-ROM publishers to include this package on a CD-ROM.
The DemoNews Reader package is distributed without any warranty; without
even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular
purpose.
DemoNews Reader is not the property of Hornet.
Send comments/bug info/flames to:
---------------------------------
- Phoenix[Kosmic/Hornet]
phoenix@hornet.org -
Send much-needed college money/love letters/food to:
- Andy Voss
RPI
Sharp 202-A
Troy, NY 12180-3599 USA -
Revision History
----------------
v1.44 adds:
- Various bug fixes, mostly for issue #135+ (THANKS Snowman :)
- Moved author/email to left of info bar, shrunk line number info
- Small music-changing message
v1.43 adds:
- Support for issue #135+ format
- Sorted issues by number
- Faster Unix conversion
- Fixed Unix conversion bug
v1.42 adds:
- Unix(no CR)->DOS file conversion (noted by a 'c' on the init screen)
- Increased max. article length to 1000 lines
- Removed email addresses from article select screen
v1.41 adds:
- Support for issue #126 (wish they'd quit changing the headers on me!)
- Fixed FTP to work with issues 123+
v1.40 adds:
- Support for new DemoNews formats (starting from issues #123, 124)
- Home/End keys for issue select screen
- Replaced CMODTSR/CS3MTSR with new CMODTSR (v3.x, MOD/S3M/XM support)
- Removed TraxWeekly support
- Removed TWPATH config variable and renamed DNPATH back to PATH
- Changed info bar at bottom to include article author's name when
appropriate, rather than mine
- Fixed extra-long article names (in article select screen)
- Fixed a text storage problem
v1.31 (unreleased) adds:
- Fixed email bug
- Fixed FTP bug
v1.30 adds:
- Article header codes
- Auto FTP retrieval (where available)
- Auto email send (where available)
- Articles scroll one screen past the end, so that file retrieval and text
marking can be done on the last screen of the article
- Fixed bug which crashed when non-converted Traxweekly issues were found
- More than one color code can be used on one line now
- Fixed various formatting bugs
v1.20 adds:
- Online help section
- Includes song names in DNREAD.CFG
- Mark/unmark keys
- Save/print marking/article
- DOS Shell
- F5/silence key
- Removed need for commas for multiple paths in DNREAD.CFG
v1.12 (private release) adds:
- Article/author cross-search/again keys
- Color coded star-ratings
v1.11 adds:
- Fixed extra-long article names
- Fixed another path bug
- Multiple directory search (up to 10 paths each for DN and TW)
v1.10 adds:
- Find word/again keys
- Support for converted Traxweekly issues
- Changed PATH variable to DNPATH, added TWPATH variable
- Fixed path variable(s) bug (i.e., again, it works now :)
- Removed support for the "DN_xofy" filename (under request of Snowman :)
- This doc file has grown a bit
v1.03 adds:
- Support for issues #87-96 (formerly known as Hornet News/o1Article, get
the revised issues at ftp.cdrom.com/demos/hornet/demonews/81-100)
- Extra-long author names cut down to fit screen
- Added 100 more lines to each article space to fit in the Complex
interview in issue #91 :)
v1.02 adds:
- Fixed multiple page bug (in other words, it works now)
v1.01 adds:
- Color codes
- Article scroll-up and -down added for fun :)
- Line number display cleaned up
v1.00 adds (to the beta versions):
- CMODTSR also included
- Max # of issues increased to 100, with multiple pages
- Max # of articles per issue increased to 100, ditto
- Article title bugs fixed
