Reading Newsgroups with tin  

   tin is a program residing on your ISP's server used to read Newsgroups
It has options for reading, downloading, posting and organizing messages and it's very easy
to read your Newsgroups on the Zaurus Z using tin.

I. LOGGING ON

   Some of these steps have been covered in other Library texts. If  you are already using your Z
to read E-mail with pine or surf the Web with Lynx, you can probably skip this section.

   Not all of the following steps will be necessary with all ISPs, but they are given for
completeness. Note too that many of the following steps regarding logging on to your system can
be automated by creating an Auto Log on in your Zaurus Terminal entry.

   Create an entry for your ISP in Terminal. Use 8N1 for the settings and choose the appropriate
phone number for the baud speed of your modem. The sidecar modem works fine with 14.4
connections.

   Dial your ISP using the Terminal entry you created. When the connection is made you will be
asked for your username and password. Type them in pressing Enter after each.

   Many ISPs will now bring you directly to a Main Menu, some will present you with a choice of
using SLIPP, PPP or simple connect through Terminal. If given this choice choose simple
connect.

   If given this choice, you may be asked to log in again. Note that this can all be automated after
you have done it several times with an Auto Log on sequence.

II. MAIN MENU 

   You should now be at the Main Menu, giving you the a number of choices particular to your
ISP, but also including E-Mail, Newsgroups, FTP, Telenet, UNIX prompt and Quitting the
system. Choose the one to read Newsgroups. If that choice does not exist, and if you are given
the choice of using the UNIX Shell, or if the prompt word you see ends with a %: simply type tin
at the system prompt.

III. tin

   The tin program will now start displaying its current version and will read a number of files on
your system. Depending on the number of Newsgroups on your system, the number previously
subscribed to and your modem speed, this could take a few minutes.

   If this is the first time using tin, an introduction screen appears, prompting you to press a key to
continue. You will then be given a Group Selection Screen.

   If you have previously chosen Newsgroups with your regular PC viewer, you will be shown a
listing of the new Newsgroups added to the system since your last log on and asked if you wish to
join:

   Subscribe to new group alt.sex.zaurus (y/n/q) [n]

   you can cycle through each choice typing y or n or quit the list by typing q. Note that in tin the
default choice is displayed in brackets following the prompt. Above the default choice is n (no).
Pressing Enter gives you the default choice.

   *Note* tin shows the selected Newsgroup by highlighting it. However, the Zaurus does not
support highlighting. If you have difficulty determining the selected choice, press I to change the
highlight to an arrow.

IV. HELP, QUITTING and COMMANDS

    You can quit anywhere in tin by typing q, which will bring you to the previous level until you
reach the Group Selection screen, there, typing q quits tin. You can quit from anywhere by typing
Q. From this  you can see that tin is case sensitive.

    tin has a limited online help system displayed at the bottom of the screen, listing commands and
brief (!) descriptions appropriate for the level you are in. To display the commands for your
current level, type h. If you type H it will toggle the help commands not to appear and give you
four more lines of display on the screen.

V. USING tin

   Getting around the Newsgroup listing. The following basic commands are used both for
navigating through the Newsgroup listings, Newsgroup threads  and the articles themselves:
______________________________________________________________________
COMMAND                        MOVES
______________________________________________________________________

Spacebar, Ctrl-D              Down one page

b, Ctrl-U, Ctrl-B             Up one page

$                                     End of Newsgroup listing

k                                     Up one line

j                                      Down one line

n                                     Move to Newsgroup number (thread number,  
                               article number n. For example, to go to     
                                301, type 301. At the prompt Select   
                            group> 301 Press Enter.

g               Goes to the Newsgroup chosen. For      
                            example, typing g comp.sys.palmtops moves
                you to that group
_______________________________________________________________________

** Note: instead of using the Utilities Menu at the top of your Zaurus to enter Ctrl characters,
you can type Cancel twice followed by the letter. So Ctrl-D is: Cancel Cancel D.


   To search for Newsgroups with certain words in the name, press the forward slash /. tin
prompts: Search forwards []> Enter the word you are looking for and it will show the next
Newsgroup with that text in the title. To search backwards, press ?   


VI. THERE'S MORE

   tin is a powerful and versatile program, with many more commands to navigate through the
articles and options to save, search, post and reply. You'll probably pick those up yourself if you
experiment. This has only been intended as a quick basic primer for users of the Zaurus.  For more
information see the excellent short paperback book by Brent Heslop and David Angell entitled
"The Instant Internet Guide" published by Addison Wesley, from which much of the above
information was obtained.