Tue Jan  9 14:38:08 PST 2007

Here's a step-by-step guide to using 'pine' to 
subscribe to and read the class newsgroup.


We assume you've logged in to your ITS account.

(that's the one where your login is the same as
 the part of your email address to the left of
 the @ sign). We'll refer to this as 'mylogin'
 in the following ...

STEP1: You'll need to be in an open terminal to run pine ...

  If you are logged in via ssh 
  (say after issuing the command 'ssh mylogin@unix.ic.ucsc.edu' or
   similar from your local machine)
  then you already have a terminal open.

  If you are logged in to a Sun workstation in one of the labs,
  using the CDE desktop, you can get a terminal by ...
   1. right-click your mouse on the desktop (pops up a menu).
   2. pick 'Tools' (pops up a menu).
   3. pick 'Terminal' (opens a terminal for you).


STEP2: type 'pine' at the command prompt and hit <Enter>.

  If this is the first time you've run 'pine', it will ask
  you some setup questions. You can safely accept the defaults
  by pressing <Enter>.


STEP3: 'pine' will always ask for your login (mylogin) and password
  since it is configured to read your email as well as read newsgroups.
  Whether you read your email this way is up to you - we are using 'pine'
  for its newsgroup browsing behavior.

  (Caveat: If you read a piece of mail first with pine, the default
   config will delete your message from the server, so accessing
   your mail later from say, cruzmail, will not see it).


STEP4: After logging in, 'pine' will by default place you on the
 'Folder List' menu item (choice L). Hit <Enter> to select this.


STEP5: After entering the folder list, you will get a screen in
  3 sections. Your cursor should normally have your email INBOX
  selected in the top section (labeled 'Folder-Collection <Mail>').

  The bottom section (labeled 'News-Collection <News on ...>')
  is where you'll be returning to everytime you read news.

  But first, you need to subscribe to the news group ...


STEP6: Subscribe. 

  Move your cursor down below the mail folder area of the screen.

  Hit the hotkey 'A', for Add. Both upper and lowercase A work.

  It's important that your cursor is near the bottom of the
  screen so that 'Add' adds a newsgroup, not an email folder.

  This will bring up a prompt 'Enter newgroup name ...'

  type in the following, exactly as shown ...

  ucsc.class.cmps101

  ... and hit <Enter>.

STEP7: You are now subscribed.
  Use the arrow keys to select ucsc.class.cmps101 and hit <Enter>.

  You are now on a numbered list of all the news messages in the 
  newsgroup. Use the arrow keys to move up and down to select the
  message you wish to read. Hit <Enter> when you are over the message,
  and it will show up on the screen. You can use arrow keys to navigate
  through the message, and '<' to go back to the menu of news postings.


STEP8: Get comfortable with the above before trying to post to the group.
  The 'R' command, for reply, is only available from the screen listing all
  the messages in the newsgroup as well as on the screen where you are 
  viewing an individual posting.

  When you hit reply, you'll be asked if you want to include the original
  posting in your reply, and then you'll be asked HOW you want to reply.

  If your purpose is to create a new posting from scratch, clearly it is
  to your advantage to not include the original in your 'response'.

  This is where the integration of email and newsreading in pine actually 
  becomes useful, since you can reply directly to the poster of the 
  message via email (thus bypassing the newsgroup entirely) or you can
  post to the group, or both. 

  'F' is the choice to post to the newsgroup only.

  Choosing it will drop you into an editor where you compose the posting.

  Notice there are many useful actions available on the bottom menu. 
  Since you are in a mode where you want to type text, the actions are
  no longer 'hotkeys', but keys that go along with the control key.

  The 2 most important are probably ctrl-X, which will actually post the
  message when you're done, and ctrl-C, which will get you out of posting
  if you change your mind.


COMMENTS: In general, if you get lost, read the menu at the bottom of
  the screen. It will tell you your options, which usually include
  getting out of where you've gotten to, or '?' for help.

  Depending on your keyboard and terminal modes, you may not always be
  able to use the 'Back Space' key to back up. Other likely candidates
  are Ctrl-h (hold down the control key and hit h), or the Delete or 
  Del key.
  
MISC: By default, pine will leave all messages in the posting list.
  You must consciously delete messages if you don't want
  to see them listed in following sessions. Don't worry - you aren't
  deleting them anywhere except for your login.

  If you change your mind in the same session, you can select the
  message in the posting list and hit 'U' for undelete. The big
  D next to the posting title will disappear.

  If you change your mind later, the message won't even appear in 
  the posting list for the newsgroup. You can use the '&' (ampersand)
  command to restore all your locally deleted messages and they will
  then continue to appear in the list until (or if) you delete them
  again.
  
IMPORTANT: For 'pine' and other interactive commands that you 
  run at the command prompt, be sure to exit them in their
  'expected' fashion - e.g. Don't just close the window 
  containing them. Otherwise, you may end up with stale lock
  files, data not written to disk, and other logical malfunctions
  that are best avoided.