Editor's Corner

Patched Makenews Program
By Frank Vest
1:1/23

First off. I'd like to give credit to and thank Björn Felten for the patch of the "makenews" program. (notice that your name is proper now, Björn.) <smile>

The heart of producing the Fidonews is a program called "makenews". Prior to being handed the Editor position, I was working on a "front end" for the system that would make production easier. Even then, I noticed the limits of the "makenews" program. "Makenews" didn't allow ascii characters that could not be typed on a plain typewriter. While this is not a real problem in the U.S.A., it can be an aggravation to other countries and other languages. People whose name has an o with the two dots (ö) above it could not write their names properly in a Fidonews article submission.

A discussion spurred by some in the Fidonews echo has brought this former limit to life again. While I don't believe that the Fidonews is a place for a lot of "high ascii", the simple desire to see one's name spelled properly in an article for the Fidonews isn't that much to ask imho.

Björn Felten offered a solution. Björn offered to make a patch for the "makenews" program or write a new one. Since he offered and I think that being able to see ones name spelled properly is not too much to ask, I sent him the program. I received the patch back rather quickly and applied it. From my tests, the patch worked and the Fidonews can now allow characters for spelling in other languages.

What does this mean??

If your name requires a special character to be written properly, the Fidonews should now be able to handle it.

If you were using the excuse of not being able to properly spell your name in the Fidonews for not submitting articles, you no longer have that excuse. :-)

The Fidonews has taken a step forward?

What it DOS NOT mean is that I will accept articles in other than english. English is still the language that is most commonly know in Fidonet.

Please limit your use of the allowed ascii to the need for spelling your name, or the name of someone mentioned in your article submission, properly.

I'm not sure how this is going to work out. I believe in advancing Fidonet and the Fidonews. I hope this will in some way move us toward that goal. My concern is that the "high ascii" might interfere with some BBS programs that offer the Fidonews for reading "online". I'm sure that there could be other problems with this as well. The Fidonews will have to cross those bridges when/if we get to them.

Regards,

Frank Vest