An Overview of NN
Trivia
nn is a menu-based, "point-and-shoot" netnews
interface program that derives its name from the saying "No News is
good news". It is the creation of Kim F. Storm at Texas Instruments
A/S, Denmark, and was first released in Denmark in 1984, Europe in
1988, and the world in 1989. Since that time, nn
has replaced rn and other well-known news readers
at many sites.
Features
nn provides a highly flexible environment for news
reading, with a complete set of features designed to satisfy both the
novice and expert user. Noteworthy features include:
- Menu-based article selection prior to reading, with articles
sorted according to subject and time stamp.
- Use of standard
~/.newsrc file, allowing individual
articles to remain unread.
- Automatic splitting of digests into ordinary articles.
- Full folder support.
- Online help and manual.
- Built-in unshar and patch utilities.
- Built-in uudecode utility which automatically unpacks,
concatenates, and decodes multi-part postings.
- Configurable key bindings and macro definitions.
- Automatic kill and selection of articles.
- Configurable newsgroup
presentation sequence.
- Unsubscription of whole classes of newsgroups.
- Related newsgroups can be merged and presented as a single group.
- NNTP support.
- Single-keystroke commands for common tasks.
- File and newsgroup completion.
- Article previewing.
- Shell escapes.
Usage
nn separates news reading into two different
stages, or "modes", and correspondingly alters the key bindings to
better accomodate whichever mode is in force.
When nn is first started, you'll find yourself in
what is known as selection mode. In this mode, you highlight
articles which appear to be interesting by single keystrokes, using
a-z and 0-9 to toggle selections. When you're
finished, you simply press the spacebar. If there are more articles
to be displayed, then the next page of them will appear for you to
select as before. This process continues until you have exhausted all
of the currently available articles in the newsgroup.
After selecting all of the articles you wish to read, nn
switches to reading mode. All of the selected
articles in the newsgroup will be presented to you in the order in
which they appeared in the article menu, and you press the spacebar to
move from page to page and article to article. When you finish
reading the last article in the current newsgroup, you move on to the
next newsgroup and are once again placed in selection mode.
When you run out of unread newsgroups, nn exits.
Files
nn will generate a ~/.nn/ directory
for you if one doesn't already exist, and it is here that all files
relating to your nn environment will be kept. Of
these, you should be most aware of the following:
-
~/.newsrc
- The record of all read articles.
-
~/.nn/init
- Personal configurations. This file will not be generated
automatically, but you can create or modify it with impunity.
-
~/.nn/kill
- Automatic kills and selections. This file, affectionately known
as the"kill file", is also one that you can edit at will.
-
~/.nn/LAST
- The timestamp on the last newsgroup seen.
-
~/.nn/NEXTG
- The active group when nn was last quit.
But wait, there's more!
There is, of course, much more to nn than the brief
summary offered here, but this should at least get you started. If
you decide that you're interested in learning more, feel free to do
one or more of the following:
SMW
22apr94