Editor's Corner

How the Snooze is produced
By Frank Vest
1:124/6308(.1)

In the Fidonews Echo, I got into a conversation that led me to try to explain how the Fidonews is produced. It was suggested that I publish my explanation. I'm not sure how well I've explained the procedure, but here it is. :-)

Maybe I should write an article on how the Fidonews is produced. :-))

This might be a long version, but....;

When Warren was Editor, I asked him for a copy of the program used to create the Fidonews. He supplied the program and related batch file. After looking at it and trying to figure it out with Warren's help, I decided that there had to be a better way. I'm not condemning the author of the batch file since I understand it was written in a hurry due ot the death of Doug Myers and the fact that Doug didn't really pass on the program. The batch file and other stuff was put together in a hurry from bits and pieces. No blame implied towards anyone. It just happened.

The program that actually "produces" the Fidonews is called "Makenews.exe". It's old and has some quirks to it. I'll not get into all of them. Let's just say that it's picky. :)

I sat down to write a new batch file to use with the "makenews program" with the intent of helping Warren and making the job of production easier. The batch file started simple and I thought it would take a week or two. Some two months later I finally got a workable copy to Warren for testing. :-))

About a month later, it was going pretty well and I had most of the bugs worked out. I'm still playing with it. :) The process is something like this:

Runews.bat is the batch file that, along with the "makenews" program, does the bulk of the work. When started, the batch file asks for the month in three letters (Jan, Feb... and so on). Then it asks for the day in two digits (01 ..31). Then the issue number (01 ... 52). It will accept any input, but the Editor is assumed to be smart enough to know that Jak isn't a month and no month has more than 31 days... etc. :-)

Then there is a menu displayed with some options. The Fidonews Editor can run an editor program to edit the article submissions. Test received article for errors that the "makenews" program will not accept. Fix most of the errors automatically. Make the Fidonews and review it... after which there is an option to accept the produced Fidonews or reject it and go back to edit or fix articles. Hatch the Fidonews if the production was good and the Fidonews Editor is ready. Post the fidonews if the Fidonews Editor is ready. Of course, there is a "Quit" option too. :-)

The process goes something like this;

Received article(s) are placed in a "fix" directory (c:\fidonews\fix). There are two other directories for articles that are important... The "input" and "repeat" directories where error free and repeated articles are put.

The "Test" option is chosen and all the files in the "fix", "input", "repeat" and root "fidonews" directory are copied to a "work" directory for the processing. The "work" directory must be "cleaned" each time "makenews" is run or the whole thing gets mucked up. The "runews.bat" does this after getting an "ok" from the Fidonews Editor.

The output of the "makenews" program is redirected to a file which is then displayed. This file lists all the sections that the "makenews" program knows of and any errors in articles in these sections.

You check this and note which articles have errors and then exit back to the menu. Then, you run the editor and load the article(s) that have errors, one by one, into the editor for editing.

Once you have fixed the obvious errors in each article and saved the corrected article(s), you test again. If there are errors that you can't find, you can then try the "fix" option and hope that it gets them.... So far, this has worked well (too well in the case of the ~ in Joe Jared's column :).

Once the test shows error free, move the articles from the "fix" directory to the "input" directory and do a final test. If that is good, choose the "make" option and "makenews is run without the redirect and the Fidonews is produced. The finished product is then displayed for your review and acceptance. You read it and if it's ok by you, you exit the reader. You're then asked if it's ok to finish the production. If you answer no, you go back to the menu and can fix or edit/test/make again until you are happy. :) If you answer yes, the file_id is created and some other things and the whole Fidonews with file_id is zipped up for delivery.

When you're ready, you choose the "hatch" option and the hatch program hatches the Fidonews out with a .tic file and all the related file attach to be sent off for the Fidonet world to read. :) After the hatch, here are some automated programs that run to generate and place certain repeat articles like the "Food For Thought", "Comics" and stuff into the "input" directory for the next week's edition.

If you wish to post the Fidonews, the "post" option is there as well. Right now, I don't do the posting since Carl does a good job of it and all.

And you thought it was a "piece of cake" :-)

Seriously.. It isn't that hard and I'd like to think that I've made it easier with the "runews.bat" file. The "Guidelines" that you see in the Fidonews each week are there to help people that wish to submit articles... not as rules and such. "Makenews" refuses to accept articles with high ascii and control codes. That's to prevent the Fidonews from being unreadable or postable by some BBS programs or other means that just barf on those control codes. Even some editors and word processors that claim the save in ascii text format will add control codes. Some are not visible to other editors or word processors, but can cause problems in display just the same. That is why I ask to try to follow the guidelines. I'm not trying to be a jerk... just that some of the control codes are invisible and hard to edit out and "makenews" barfs on them.

Anyway, I'll shut up now. This is probably more than you wanted to know. :)

Regards,

Frank

http://texoma.net/~flv
http://bise.tzo.com/r19