NewsStats 1.40 (18 Sep 2001)

NewsStats analyses newsgroups or email mailboxes giving information such as
the number of messages about a particular subject or the duration of a
thread.

NewsStats works by requesting newsgroup messages from a message server
program, such as Newsbase. It will only work if you are using Newsbase to
store your newsgroups or emails, or a compatible program. A web browser is
also required to display the analysis.

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Installation

NewsStats is written in Python, so requires the Python runtime resources. You
can get this from

  http://www.schwertberger.de/

(the 'Binaries, Libraries' archive is sufficient). Install it as described in
the archive. You are now ready to run NewsStats.

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Usage

Double-click on the NewsStats icon to load it to the iconbar. Make sure
Newsbase or an equivalent is loaded, then click on the NewsStats icon.

Enter a username and password, as you would use in Messenger or your mail
reader.

Choose the newsgroup or email mailbox to analyse from the pop-up menu. �All
groups‘ will analyse all the groups available. Choose the type of analysis:

Fast analysis - this only analyses the subject, author and date of the
                messages.

Full analysis - this analyses all the headers available, so takes longer

Fully analysing a newsgroups can take a long time, especially if there are
many messages. For example, analysing a small newsgroup with 50 messages
takes about 25 seconds on an A7000+.

Click �Analyse and save‘ and drag the icon to a directory, or click �Analyse
and display‘ to start the analysis. A window will show the progress of the
analysis.

When the analysis is complete, the results will be displayed in your
browser, or saved to the directory as html files. Each link on the first
page (�index/html‘ in the directory) corresponds to one of the headers in
the news postings or emails, and leads to a page giving a count of each
content for that header. The duration is calculated from the �Date‘ header.

Interactive help is supported.

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Possible problems

Problem: I get the message �News Stats could not find a message server.
         Please load a server (eg. Newsbase), and try again.‘ every time I
         click on the NewsStats icon.

Solution: Load Newsbase or a compatible message server. If it is already
          loaded, wait a moment before trying again.


Problem: I get �File not found‘ errors from my browser.

Solution: NewsStats deletes the result pages it generated when it is quit if
          you used �Analyse and display‘, so leave it running while you look
          through the results.


Problem: NewsStats crashes or doesn't work with Messenger Pro.

Solution: This may be due to a bug in older version of Messenger Pro. Upgrade
          to version 2.09 or later.

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Copyright (c) 2001 James Bursa

All rights reserved.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons
to whom the Software is furnished to do so, provided that the above
copyright notice(s) and this permission notice appear in all copies of
the Software and that both the above copyright notice(s) and this
permission notice appear in supporting documentation.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT
OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR
HOLDERS INCLUDED IN THIS NOTICE BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, OR ANY SPECIAL
INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING
FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

Except as contained in this notice, the name of a copyright holder
shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use
or other dealings in this Software without prior written authorization
of the copyright holder.

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NewsStats uses the mxDateTime library. See the copyright and license
in the mx directory.

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james.bursa@strcprstskrzkrk.co.uk
http://www.strcprstskrzkrk.co.uk/

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