All GNKSA/U evaluations are compiled by Tim Pierce at <URL:http://http.bsd. uchicago.edu/~twpierce/news/>.My own evaluations are also summarised at <URL:http://www.mygale.org/ 11/bubulle/gnksa>.

Anawave Gravity is the evolution of former Microplanet Gravity (latest version : 1.01)

The software is still qualified to receive the Good Net-Keeping Seal of Approval for Usenet Software (see <URL:http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/Good_Netkeeping_Seal>) . Note that Gravity is GNKSA/U compliant since version 1.00.

Some non GNKSA/U-requested features should IMHO be added :

  1. The software should insert the appropriate MIME headers (Mime-Version: and Content-Type:) when posting with 8-bit characters included,
  2. Gravity should properly decode Quoted-Printable (but NOT post QP!) as well as encoded headers (things like "=?ISO-8859-1?Q?anim=E9?= ").

This software may be found at <URL:http://www.microplanet.com>.

Below is the detailed evaluation checklist :

   
Req Itm                                          Sub-    Item   
rd? ##  Description                            item OK?   OK?     Notes   
   
Y    1  Display all essential header info                 YES
  Y       default is to display                   YES                
  Y       a) display author                       YES   
  Y       b) display subject                      YES   
  Y       c) display newsgroups list              YES   
  Y       d) display Followup-To list             YES
  Y       e) display Reply-To if /= From:         YES
   
Y    2  Provide standard commands                         YES  
  Y       clear                                   YES
  Y       separate                                YES 
  Y       a) post a new article                   YES
  Y       b) post a followup article              YES
  Y       c) reply by email                       YES              
  N       use standard terminology                YES
   
Y    3  Implement cross-posting                           YES   
  Y       allow user specification                YES
  Y       cross-post (not multi-post)             YES  
   
Y    4  Change essential headers                          YES
  Y       change headers while editing body       YES   
  Y       change Subject                          YES   
  Y       allow at least 70 chars in subject      YES
  Y       change Newsgroups                       YES   
  Y       change Followup-To                      YES 
  Y       allow followup-to: poster               YES
  Y       change Reply-To                         YES
   
Y    5  Correct Subject headers in flwup/rply             YES  
  Y       a) prepend "Re: " (exactly!)            YES
  Y       b) preserve entire Subject              YES   
  Y          even subjects > 80 chars long        YES   
   
Y    6  Respect Followup-To                               YES  
  Y       use to initialize Newsgroups: in flwup  YES 
  Y       recognize and act on 'poster'           YES                 1)          
  
Y    7  Followups contain References                      YES   
  Y       contains message-id of original         YES   
  Y       never truncate individual message-id    YES
  N       contains three Refs from original       YES   
  N       contains entire Refs of original        YES   
   
Y    8  Direct email reply to Reply-To                    YES
   
Y    9  Quotation and attribution                         YES  
  Y       provide method                          YES   
  Y       set off by prepend                      YES               
  Y       attribution line                        YES                 2) 
  Y         identifies author                     YES               
  N         gives message-id                      YES               
   
Y   10  Subject is mandatory                              YES         3) 
  Y       do not post empty or provide <none>     YES              
  Y       allow change while editing body         YES   
   

Y   11  Must provide valid From: header                   YES
  Y       syntactically valid                     YES                 4) 
  N       belongs to the user                     NO
           5)
   
Y   12  Must provide cancel                               YES   
  Y       of own articles                         YES
  Y       *not* of others                         YES               
   
N   13  Respect line length, and post WYSIWYG             YES   
  N       line brks shown are present when posted YES
  N       do *not* post paragraph w/o line brks   YES   
  N       warn if body has lines > 80 chars       YES                6)                   
  N       external editor conforms                N/A   
   
N   14  Prevent obvious errors                            YES          
  N       prevent posting empty article           YES                7)
  N       prevent posting only quoted text        YES                7)

Notes to the checklist

First a short description of what the columns in this checklist stand for:

Req?:
A "Y" means that the item or subitem is a MUST for the software in order to get the Good Net-Keeping Seal Approval.
ITM ##:
This is the item number in the GNKS document : <URL:http:// www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/Good_Netkeeping_Seal>
Description:
Follow the above link to the original document for a more detailed description and an explanation of the rationale behind it.
Subitem OK ?: and Item OK?:
If the item is required, this is marked "YES" if all _required_ subitems are ok. If it is _not_ required, it is marked "YES" if if _all_ subitems are ok.
Notes:
These are given below:
  1. The software asks if the user wants to "respect" the Followup-To: poster with the default to respect it. IMHO this is the best solution.
  2. The default attribution line mentions the original author's email adress and the Original Message-ID. This is IMHO enough (maybe the original author's real name would be good also?). A configurable "courtesy copy" indicator (for article with CC by mail) is also implemented,
  3. The siftware refuses to post with an empty subject,
  4. This check extends to the Reply-To: field when necessary.
  5. This may be considered impossible on a single user (no real system administrator) platform.
  6. The default is having word wrap occur at 78 characters (maybe a little lower would be better). Then all GNKSA/U requirements are satisfied. The only way of posting an article with longer line is to temporarily change this settings to a higher value. Gravity warns the user (for each posting!) about articles with more than 80 character long lines being difficult to read. Quoted lines are never rewrapped.
  7. Posting with an empty text is completely impossible. When posting an article containing only quoted text, the user is simply warned.
This evaluation has been conducted by Christian Perrier