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 "Getting Started with Thoth and Mac OS X, Part 2"
10/15/2001
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This month is the first time I have ever written a multi-part series, and this morning I
was instantly reminded why that is probably not a good idea. While resting quietly on my
hard drive this weekend, the original edition of this column became obsolete just days
after it was complete. The reason: Brian Clark released Thoth 1.4.0b, a fairly significant
upgrade from the previous release.
I'm going to take a brief look at the new release as it pertains to Part 1 of this series
before moving ahead. The most significant change is a new setup walkthrough that
simplifies setting up a new server. Instead of visiting several different dialogs and
filling out what seems to be a set of random settings, choose New Server from the file
menu and follow the interactive guide as steps though the process of setting up a new
server and establishing a subscription list. The guide approach makes it easier for
newbies to set up a new server; however, it does not take into account the chance of
making a mistake when entering new settings. (In other words, keep the Part 1 handy for
troubleshooting just in case.)
I'm going to pick up the thread of this tutorial where the walkthrough leaves off: making
a custom Group List. The news server will carry thousands of groups, and the way to keep
track of only those groups that interest you is to create a Group List. It is important to
understand the difference between your Group Lists and the Full Newsgroup List. The full
list contains every group on the server, and the Group Lists you create (you can have as
many as you like, arranged any way you like) contain only those groups you assign.
To create a new Group List, select the server from the News Server Settings submenu under
the Edit menu. Set the Topic: popup menu to Group Lists, and click on the Add New button.
Name the group something descriptive, such as "Mac lists." By selecting "automatically
open when news file is opened," the file will open whenever a connection to the server is
opened. Click OK to create the list. When you click OK in the News Server Settings window,
a new window should appear with the title of the Group List name. Adding groups to the
list is as simple as dragging individual groups from the Full Newsgroup List into the
Group List window. (If there are no items visible in the full list, select Rebuild Full
Group List from the Special menu, and wait until the download is complete.)
If everything is set up correctly, when you drag a group name into a Group List, the item
should appear alongside a number, which indicates the number of unread messages in that
group. The first time a group is added, that number will usually be very high, because all
the messages on the server are new to you (and can often number in the thousands.)
Add several other groups to your new Group List. Now, double click on the first group. The
Thoth Status window, if open, will show that it is getting the subject headers. The number
of headers it retrieves is set in the preferences, Newsreading Options, Maximum Number of
Articles to Fetch. (Usually the faster your connection, the higher you should set this
number. 500 works fine for a dial-up, but a DSL or Cable modem user will probably want at
least 1500 or 2000.)
When a message list is visible, double-clicking on a line will download and display the
message. (Binary files are shown as attachments, and will be covered soon.) Once a message
opened, it is marked as read by a small checkmark next to the subject line in the message
list.
Here is a quick way to scan a lot of messages quickly, and mark those as read once you've
looked at the headers. After reading the message headers to see the subjects that match
your interest, press Command-J, which will mark any remaining messages as read, and fetch
the next batch of messages. Thoth will keep pulling batches out of the current group until
all of those messages are read, then jump to the next group automatically.
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- by Robert DeLaurentis
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