From twpierce@midway.uchicago.edu Thu Apr 4 09:02 CST 1996 Date: Thu, 4 Apr 96 00:13 MET DST To: olavt@ksedb.no, rnewman@mit.edu, perrier@onera.fr, twpierce@midway.uchicago.edu, bubulle@bubhome.frmug.fr.net Newsgroups: news.software.readers Subject: GNKSA/U : News for Windows 95/NT X1.0-86 From: bubulle@bubhome.frmug.fr.net (Christian Perrier) Organization: Usenetik Park X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.07FR-951125 MIME-Version: 1.0 Resent-To: twpierce@bio-3.bsd.uchicago.edu Resent-Date: Thu, 4 Apr 96 9:02:03 CST Resent-From: Tim Pierce Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Length: 6123 Results of my evaluation of News for Windows NT X1.0-86 (tested under MS-Windows 95) The software as reviewed still PASSES the Good Net-Keeping Seal of Approval (version 0.76 already passed GNKSA/U). Compared to version 0.79 which has been recently evaluated, no point (related to GNKSA/U requirements) has been improved. Some points could still be improved : 1) A syntax validity checking test could be made on Reply-To similarly to the check on From: 2) The user is not warned when posting articles with lines over 80 characters width. The default composition window size makes line length greater than 80 characters. 3) Posting articles articles with only quoted text is allowed. Some useful features have been added : 1) A more visually attractive interface...:-) 2) XOVER support 3) Threading (imho still not very easy to use as the indentation is not very esay to see) Some useful features could be added : 1) Killfiles support ------------------------------------------------- Subject: 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 Y identifies author YES N gives message-id YES Y 10 Subject is mandatory YES Y do not post empty or provide YES Y allow change while editing body YES Y 11 Must provide valid From: header YES Y syntactically valid YES 2) N belongs to the user NO 3) Y 12 Must provide cancel YES Y of own articles YES Y *not* of others YES N 13 Respect line length, and post WYSIWYG NO 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 NO N external editor conforms N/A N 14 Prevent obvious errors NO N prevent posting empty article YES N prevent posting only quoted text NO ------------------------------------------------- Subject: Notes to the checklist First a short description of what the columns in this checklist stand for: Reqrd?: 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 Description: Follow the above link to the original document for a more detailed description and an explanation of the rationale behind it. Subitem OK ?: 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) News _refuses_ to post a follow-up when Followup-To: poster is in headers. A suggestion for replying by email is made. 2) Reply-To is not checked. This is not required by GNKS/A though. 2) This may be considered impossible on a single user (no real system administrator) platform (I tested under Windoze 95