snownews: HOW2 access cache ?

On advice from this forum I've started using `snownews`.
It's minimal interface is nice.
But I can't see how to continue with the already selected feeds, after I reboot.

Although there IS a cache file, with the feeeds that I had previously selected,
the menu only shows <add new feed> and no <show subscribed feeds>.

Obviously, you need to be able to continue with the feeds and article-headers
previously down-loaded.

Googling showed the bellow re 'newsbeuter'; which introduces the notion of

== TIA

 

When you run snownews, you should see a list of subscribed feeds. To
refresh all feeds, hit R; for help, hit h. There are screenshots here

The instructions for some other piece of software aren't likely to help )

 

Is it unrealistic to hope to use it a bit like a newsreader:
1. to be able to d/l the header list of a URL once-only & cache it.
2. to be able to d/l the articles corresponding to headers once-only & cache them.

When I've got one blog 'open for replying', I want to have time to compose
a serious text, and not just do-a-twitter-kiddie. So I'd want to be able to open
others, at the same time. But `snowman` allows only 1 pid=<snowman>.

Can you get around this; perhaps one per user ?

== TIA.

 

Is it unrealistic to hope to use it a bit like a newsreader:
1. to be able to d/l the header list of a URL once-only & cache it.
2. to be able to d/l the articles corresponding to headers once-only & cache them.

When I've got one blog 'open for replying', I want to have time to compose
a serious text, and not just do-a-twitter-kiddie. So I'd want to be able to open
others, at the same time. But `snowman` allows only 1 pid=<snowman>.

Can you get around this; perhaps one per user ?

== TIA.

 

I'm not sure what your problem is; if you're looking at a web page
you're no longer using Snownews - you're using a web browser. Snownews
is perfectly happy to tell your browser to start a new window or tab to
open another web page, so you can have as many web pages open at once as
you like (or your system allows).

Those browser tabs or windows will remain open until you specifically
close each one, or kill all browser instances. If you're having
difficulty with switching between browser windows or between the browser
and Snownews, then you should look at your browser settings or your
underlying system set-up.

If you're using a Linux or Unix console without a GUI, consider the
utility called "Screen", which allows multiple independent sessions (for
the same user) within the one console; that will allow you to switch
easily between a multitude of applications or different instances of the
same application.

If you're using Snownews' default browser, "Lynx", consider using
"Elinks" instead (which supports tabs), or one of the graphical browsers
if you have a GUI.

A completely different approach, which might suit you very well, is to
use the <http://gwene.org/> service to provide a 'feed' you can
subscribe to using your usenet client.

 

I'm using snownews on your recommendation.
Do YOU know how to use it without the limitations of 'a browser'?

OK, I've only got elinks on an old partition/installation,
and <set browser used> to `chroot /mnt/p14 /usr/bin/elinks`,
may have problems.

A serious limitation of snowthat you can't have multiple copies
running simultaneously, like you can with links, lynxs ..etc.; has for me
no obvious good reason.

OK, I'm looking into that.

Thanks.

 

Snownews requires a web browser for display of web pages; Snownews can
only display the "description" of the web page concerned, if there is
one, not the page itself.

[...]

If you can install Snownews, you can install elinks - or midori or
dillo or Opera ...

As Snownews only lists 'current' articles and links to the web page
where you actually read and respond using your web browser, I can't see
why more than one instance of Snownews would serve any purpose. But if
you want it as a feature, by all means contact the creator/maintainer
of the program.

You'll still be using a web browser to access the web pages and
respond.

 

Yes, I can walk a thousand miles. But you sold me snownews and
now you want me to buy an extara browser before i can use snowy.

 

Yes, I can walk a thousand miles. But you sold me snownews and
now you want me to buy an extra browser before i can use snowy.

Well, I don't know the mechanism behind RSS, like I do with USEnet,
which has a RFC spec.
The main absurdity of blogs is that you've got to d/l the full train
of comments to see if there's a reply to your question.
And as I previously explained, if you're not a superficial twittering kiddie,
you will often want to keep a pending reply open for a day or 2 while
your thinking/researching. So then the whole mechanism is tied up,
and you can't read other blogs/articles.

I changed the <default browser> from lynx to links, which I see has a
<open new window>, but I'm getting bad results.
<open new window> just opens another consol, which I can do any time.
If it opened another snownews that would be good.
But of course links is a descendant of snownews, so it can't open
another ancestor process.
Besides snownews doesn't allow a second snownews to run.
And when I tried to create an extra user, for perhps snowy to
run a second copy, that was another can-o-worms.

http is a curse!

 

The software is free. I really have no interest in what browser you
use to read and respond to the articles you find using Snownews. I'm
trying to help you find a satisfactory way of achieving what you want,
based on the gradually revealed description of that objective.

You do not need to have two or more instances of Snownews; one is
enough to give you the URLs of the articles you want to read, and
possibly respond to; the reading and responding is done using a web
browser, NOT Snownews. You can have as many browser 'windows' or
'tabs' open as you like, and once Snownews has sent the URL to the
browser then Snownews takes no further part in your interaction with
the web site. Leave the browser showing the window or tab just opened,
go back to Snownews, find another article you want to read, have
Snownews tell the browser to open that (hit the o key) and you'll have
two URLs open in the browser. You can add those web pages to your
browser's bookmarks (or speed-dial or whatever) so that you can close
the browser and return to those pages later - without using Snownews to
get there for the second and subsequent visits.

Check the man pages or 'help' for the browser to make sure you are
using the correct syntax in the launch command you have set in
Snownews; if you are in a GUI and want to launch a new instance of the
browser in a new instance of your terminal emulator, you need to get
the syntax of the xterm or whatever command correct too, so that
Snownews will open the terminal emulator and then have the terminal
emulator run the command to launch the browser with the chosen URL.

 

OK, quiet accrobatic. I normally don't use bookmarks.
lynx/links as a 'fetcher in the background' is what I do.
Surfing is for kiddies: going nowhere and waiting to fall-off.

-> man snowman == ...
]The default browser is lynx, but you can change this by pressing 'B' in the main
]menu and entering a new default browser.
]Or you can edit the file ~/.snownews/browser. The program replaces %s with
] the URL when expanding the string.
-----------
-> try: /usr/bin/links %s == fails

Since <the file> has been overwritten, I've lost the original
<configuration for lynx>.
I'm running from an xterm in X.
What does your <~/.snownews/browser> [not 'exactly' this file]
have as the single line launcher?

== TIA

 

Fails how?

Try putting single quotes around the variable - '%s'

#v+
opera -remote openURL\(%s\)
#v-

(Not that I use Snownews at present; I'm giving Opera's own 'feed' tool
a try).

 

Good luck bending the WWW to your will! Keep in mind that the "crap"
is what pays for the free-to-use web forums; that's the price to pay for
taking part in those things.

 

Now setting <B: default browser> back to lynx
gets the URL-contents - via lynx.

Srangely the ~./snownews/browser shows:
/usr/bin/links

Perhaps it will be updated when I exit snownews.
But I don't want to exit until I've processed the fetches.
Like you can do with USEnet.

Thanks

 

I would expect that behaviour. Programs usually load into RAM, not run
from disc.

Why would you need to? Snownews is doing what you've told it to do.

Well, at least like you apparantly can with whatever it is you use to
access usenet. But you're comparing two things that have almost
nothing in common.