Re: A short Yarn

From: Jeff Owens (jko@xprt.net)
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 18:15:54 -0700

David wrote:
>My "main" machine is OS/2, and I am enormously happy with my Yarn/VSoup
>setup on it. But I have spent most of my time in the last few months on
>this Win98 laptop... using the primitive Outlook Express that the maker
>made it difficult *not* to use. I think I am going to have to keep
>using this machine for enough of my time that I should really get a
>better mail setup on it... which means Yarn. I've been too lazy to get
>that configured... but any instructions to jumpstart the process would
>be great.

I suspect my setup would be different from what other people
use, but here is a rough overview.

1. The goal was to build a menu system for all the commands
i had trouble remembering (filtering, scoring, subscribing)
2. Automate downloading, clean up, etc.

For example, when deleting newsgroup folders the current
folders are listed and it is only necessary to select one to
discard. No worrying about how to execute the RMGROUP
program or any of the other programs which make up YARN.

This is mostly done with 3 or 4 small batch files. Things got
easier with Win98 because they added the CALL function which
allows batch files to call each other and pass parameters.
Also, a START command was added to kick off windows programs
or "objects".

So, batch files start DOS programs and windows "objects".
Once an object is started the AutoIt program is called to
watch it and push buttons. This controls the dialer and
watches the SOUPER95 window.

Only one AutoIt control file is used and it looks like
this:

; Wait for the SOUPER connect window to be active
WinWaitActive, Souper
; wait for souper to close window
WinWaitClose, Souper
Sleep, 400
; disconnect from the ISP
run, COMMAND.COM /C start c:\\windows\\desktop\\xprt.lnk
Sleep, 1000
send, !c

denied:
; move focus to the DOS window
WinActivate, MS-DOS
; set the semaphore telling the batch file to continue
run, COMMAND.COM /C del d:\\soup\\sema
Exit

If anyone is interested i can list parts of the batch files.

----
jeff owens, jko@xprt.net, http://www.teleport.com/~kowens
underground house, solar power, self-reliance, edible landscape
eco lifestyle discussion: subscribe ecopath -> majordomo@csf.colorado.edu