===== Palmtop News Reader (PNR) Version 3.1
===== Palmtop News Reader Threader & Indexer (PNRTI) Version 3.1

===== Copyright (c) 1997 - 1999  Rod Whitby <rwhitby@hplx.net>
===== Copyright (c) 1995 - 1996  Michael J. Leaver

! IMPORTANT !
-------------

If you have an older version of PNR installed and are installing a NEW 
RELEASE of PNR you must follow these steps:
                   -----------------------

  1. Remove PNR from the application manager (move to its icon and press F4)
  2. Re-install PNR.EXM into the application manager as per normal (press F2)

If those steps are not followed, PNR will crash your palmtop when executed.
If it does, just press Ctrl-Alt-Del, restart the application manager, and
follow the two steps above!

If you are updating from PNR version 2, and have existing folders that you
wish to preserve, then you will also need to convert your old folders into
new folders.  *** See the manual PNR.DOC for step by step directions. ***


Instructions
------------

PNR is a FREEWARE offline news reader for HPx00LX palmtops:

        o System Manager compliant.
        o It won't work on HP-95LX's as far as I know.
        o Compatible with the HP200LX TCP/IP Development Kit (LXTCP).

For full instructions read the MEMO file PNR.DOC. There is also a FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions) file provided called PNRFAQ.TXT.

For quick installation edit the file PNR.CFG, move it to C:\_DAT, and install
PNR.EXM (not PNR.EXE) as per normal. Then read the instructions on how to get
and thread your news and mail.


Files
-----

PNR.DOC         - *** READ THIS FIRST *** MEMO format documentation for PNR
PNR.CFG         - Configuration file for PNR
PNR.EXE         - The MS-DOS version of PNR. Use PNR.EXM on you palmtop
PNR.EXM         - The HPx00LX SysMgr compliant version of PNR
PNR.ICN         - Icon for PNR
PNRFAQ.TXT      - A Frequently Asked Questions file
PNRTI.EXE       - Threading program for use with PNR
PNRTI.ICN       - Icon for PNRTI
README          - This file


PNR Version 3.1
---------------

1. Major changes between version 3.0 and version 3.1:

PNR now deletes any read news when you exit, and stores enough information
about the unread news so that LXPOP and LXNNTP can add any newly downloaded
messages to the unread news that was previously downloaded.  This allows you
to send replies or download a new batch of news before you have finished
reading the news you already have on the palmtop.

Don't forget that there is a memory-induced limit of about 400 messages of
unread news at any time, so if you have a large number of unread messages you
may want to save them to a new folder before downloading the new batch of
news (the number of folders is only limited by your disk space, but each
folder has a memory-induced limit of about 400 messages).

2. Major changes between version 2 and version 3:

Folders are now stored in separate folder files with corresponding article
index files.  The folder index file now contains an extra field for the
basename of the folder file.

The combination of this change, and the fact that folders are now stored in
Unix MMDF format, is the first step to mail and news interoperability between
the HP Palmtop and the Unix desktop.

This major format change also improves the speed of saving index files (as
article folder files and article index files for groups that have not been
modified do not need to be rewritten).

This change was also the enabling step for being able to re-save messages from
one folder to another.

Outgoing mail and news messages may now contain a Cc: header line.  Adding a
Cc: header line to a posted news article means that a copy of the article is
also mailed to any addresses in the Cc: header line.

The message handling routines have been improved to remove the 64KB limit on
message size.  The maximum size of a message is now 2048MB.

3. Major changes between version 1.2 and version 2:

PNR version 1.2 and earlier relied upon UQWK to gather mail and news.

Version 2 of PNR interfaces with the HP200LX TCP/IP Development Kit (LXTCP)
which includes clients for POP/SMTP and NNTP.

If you do not have access to a TCP/IP connection (either via dial-up PPP to an
ISP, a serial cable PPP connection or an PCMCIA ethernet card with a packet
driver), then you should NOT upgrade to version 2 or later of PNR, as the UQWK
support has been removed.  Just about every ISP uses PPP these days, so get
with the times and use PPP :-).

If you only have dial-up or direct-cable access to a Unix shell account, then
you can still use the 'slirp' program to emulate a PPP connection for LXPPP.


PNRTI Version 3.1
-----------------

The PNRTI program has been updated to operate with version 3.1 or later of PNR.


--
Rod Whitby, May 1999.
