Reading news with Tin

Getting started

Once you have logged in, type

tin

at the system prompt, and hit enter. First you will be given a list of newsgroups and asked whether or not you would like to subscribe to them.

y subscribes to the newsgroup
n ignores the newsgroup
Y subscribes to all the new newsgroups
N ignores all the new newsgroups

You will then be presented with a menu of newsgroups to which you are subscribed. This is an example.

                   Group Selection (netnews.upenn.edu  10 R)              h=help

	    # of unread messages
unsubscribed    /
group          /			description (if any)
   \   	      /						/
    \  1     5  soc.culture.canada              Discussions of Canada and its p
     u 2     1  upenn.weather                   Natl. Weather Service forecasts
       3   336  upenn.talk                      Forum for discussion of Penn i
       4     2  phl.music                        Musical events, reviews and di
       5        phl.theatre                      Theatre events, reviews and di
       6        phl.wanted                       Items wanted in Philadelphia  
       7    41  comp.infosystems.www            The World Wide Web information 
       8    15  comp.windows.x.apps             Getting and using, not programm
       9     1  rec.arts.theatre.musicals       Musical theatre around the worl
       10   11  alt.humor.puns                  hideous word play              



       Use these commands by pressing the first character:  s)subscribe,
     u)nsubscribe, g)oto, c)atchup, h)help, m)ove, q)uit, TAB=next unread,
         j=down, k=up, /=search pattern, y=yank in unsubscribed groups

k, up-arrow
Move the highlight bar or arrow up one line.
j, down-arrow
Move the highlight bar or arrow down one line.
enter, right-arrow
Read the highlighted newsgroup.
c
Catch up in the highlighted newsgroup, marking all articles as read.
g
Go to a particular newsgroup whose name you know already.
y
Display (yank in) all of the unsubscribed newsgroups, marked with "u" for unsubscribed. Now you can subscribe to new groups.
s
Subscribe to the highlighted newsgroup.
/
Search displayed newsgroups for a pattern, such as /humor
h
Help, and more information.
q, left-arrow
Quit out of tin.

Postings and followups

A posting is a message on a new topic. A followup is a response to an article already posted. Each posting is grouped together with its followups into threads.

When you use the command for postings or followups, you will be placed in the pico editor. See the pico reference card for instructions. Inside pico, you will see "headers", including the name of the newsgroup, the subject, and a blank line. Start composing your message after the blank line. The blank line is required, so don't delete it.

Articles in a newsgroup

Articles and their responses are grouped into "threads", as shown in this menu.

                      rec.arts.movies (488T 1547A 0K 0H R)                h=help
+ means  
unread					author of first article
    \     # of responses			   \
     \   /		subjects		    \
   1  + 2  landis       /  |                        daveh@vcd.hp.com         
   2  +    BIG SCREEN HERE |                        Kevin M. Pollard (Kevin_M
   3  +    Reservoir Dogs - THE ANSWERS!!           Clint Lien (clien@cln.etc
   4  +    Actors or Icons?                         ALWHC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU    
   5  + 3  Nazis in The Lion King!?                 Joseph J. Charles (charle
   6  + 2  LAST BOYSCOUT = CULT MOVIE ???           Christoph Steinecke (jest
   7  + 2  New Indiana Jones Movie???               Brian G. Greenberg (bl375
   8  +    Jules et Jim quote                       Toby Koosman (takoosma@ut
   9  +    Movie Posters For Sale                   Duckman (ind00128@pegasus
   10  + 2  Forrest Gump                             Ben Hoffman (ben.hoffman@
   11  +    Better than their reviews                JEFF KILLEEN (killeen@eis
   12  +    Review -- I LOVE TROUBLE                 Eric Mankin (mankin@mizar
   13  + 2  What Did Jeremy Irons Say?               Lcdr Duke (n7@pnet16.navy
   14  +    Looking for Darren@artemus.demon.co.uk   The Dominator (McClane@so
   15  + 2  Die Hard III?  Is it ever going to get   Jeffrey A Lew (jal18@mhor
   16  + 2  Best CANADIAN Movies                     Timothy s. Wearing (au813
   17  +    Poster Contest Winner!                   Donna Tschetter (wk02095@

                l)ist thread, TAB=next unread, /=search pattern,
       a)uthor search, c)atchup, j=down, k=up, K=mark read, m)ail, q)uit,
              h)elp, r=show/don't show unread, s)ave, t)ag, w=post

k, up-arrow
Move the highlight bar or arrow up one line.
j, down-arrow
Move the highlight bar or arrow down one line.
enter, right-arrow
Read the highlighted thread.
c
Catch up in the highlighted newsgroup, marking all articles as read.
q, left-arrow
Quit this newsgroup, back to the first menu.
l
List articles in the thread, showing all names of people who posted. On some computers, those names may be unlisted or customized.
s
Save. You have a choice of saving the current article, the whole thread, or a group of articles. You will be asked for a file name. When you are asked for a "process", press Return for "none". The file will be saved in a directory called News, inside your home directory.
w
Post an article, beginning a new thread.
h
Help, and more information.

Commands while reading articles

k, up-arrow
Page up through the articles in the newsgroup.
j, down-arrow
Page down through this article.
enter, right-arrow
Read the highlighted thread.
q, left-arrow
Quit this article, back to the "Articles in a newsgroup" menu.
m
Mail this article to someone.
r
Reply by mail to the author of the article.
f
Post a followup message, responding to the article.