Path: news.uiowa.edu!uunet!news2.uunet.ca!uunet.ca!geac!ionews.io.org!r-node.io.org!nobody
From: taob@r-node.io.org (Brian Tao)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.apple2
Subject: binpost 1.4 description (part 0/1)
Followup-To: comp.sys.apple2
Date: 30 Oct 1993 18:07:14 -0400
Organization: Terran Exobiology Research Institute (1-800-GO-ALIEN)
Lines: 39
Message-ID: <2auoii$lgi@r-node.io.org>
NNTP-Posting-Host: r-node.io.org

    The UNIX shell script following this article is version 1.4 of my
binpost utility.  Before the advent of binpost, uploading Binsciied
files to comp.binaries.apple2 was a long and arduous task.  Posting a
large archive with a couple dozen parts could easily have taken the
better part of an hour, not counting the time needed to actually upload
the files.  Imagine if it only took 5 minutes to post that same file!

    Binpost takes the monotony out of uploading to cba2.  You no longer
need to manually type in every subject line, or keep track of the number
of Binscii segments, or enter long pathnames to load the segments into
the newsreader editor.  Binpost it a user-friendly system which prompts
you for all the information it needs.  It ensures that the subject and
header info on all related segments are consistent and meaningful.  A
standard file description is always posted as "part 0", allowing FTP
site maintainers to easily extract the name of the archive, version
number, the author and system requirements.  Once you supply the
required information, sit back and let binpost do the rest!

    Binpost also features optional segment checksums to verify the
integrity of files posted to cba2.  These values can used to detect
files corrupted in transit or errors when downloading the file.

    The first Binscii segment of every archive also contains decoding
information for 8-bit Apple II, Apple IIGS and UNIX users.  This should
help reduce the number of Binscii-related questions, or at least
redirect them to comp.sys.apple2 where they belong.

    Binpost only has one requirement:  you must have access to the
'inews' news posting utility on your UNIX system.  Any system that
allows posting should have this utility (including NNTP readers).  It
is typically found in /usr/local/bin or /usr/lib/news.  Please see
your site administrator if you can't locate this utility.

    Special thanks to Eric Shepherd for testing binpost on his
cantankerous HP system.  ;-)
-- 
Brian Tao:: taob@io.org (Internex Online, 416-363-3783, 27 lines, v.32bis)
::::::::::: 90taobri@wave.scar.utoronto.ca (University of Toronto, 9T4)