TT-NEWS
-------
DESCRIPTION
-----------
ttnews is a "headline-news-ticker" for Linux/X11. It fetches news from
web-pages, and displays them on your screen.

The program is separated in two parts, one "server", which fetches the
news and outputs it in a format ttnews can understand, and one "client"
which displays the news on screen.

The look of the program can be changed as it uses skins and a text-based
configuration file, where things like fonts and colors can be changed.


BUILD ENVIRONMENT
-----------------
QT 1.44/2.02
EGCS-2.91.66
glibc 2.1.1
Kernel 2.2.10
Distribution RedHat 6.0 (i386) (also tested under Mandrake 6.0 and
RedHat 6.1)


INSTALL
-------
1. untar the distribution, tar -xvzf ttnews-*.*.src.tar.gz
2. cd ttnews-*.*.src
3. run "make"
4. become root
5. run "make install"

And you are set to go! You should now be able to get the program
running, but if you want to do some configuring of your own, you
should create the dir ~/.ttnews to store your personal configuration
(skin and some other things).


UNINSTALL
---------
If you think this program sucks, or want to get rid of it for any
other reason, follow this step:
1. run "make uninstall"

And that should do it. If you want to do it manually, go to /usr/local
and look for the ttnews directory. In there lies the configuration-
files and the skins, the binaries lies in /usr/local/bin. Note that
the feeders also install under /usr/local/bin, so take care to get
rid of them too. But of course, by running "make uninstall" you can
do all this in a breeze.


USAGE
-----
Run a server(s) (ttServer for example), then run the news-ticker.
Example:
ttServer /usr/local/etc/ttNewsServer/tt.feed &
bbcServer /usr/local/etc/ttNewsServer/bbc.feed &
ttnews &

To send commands to the program, echo stuff to ~/.ttnews/command (stole 
this idea from the prominent MP3-player GQMPEG by the way...) Your
window manager should be able to assign commands to keyboard shortcuts,
mine (fvwm2.2) certainly can! In my .fvwm2rc it looks like this:
---snip---
#   Key         Context Modif   Function
Key F9		A	SM	Exec echo allnews > $HOME/.ttnews/command &
Key F10		A	SM	Exec echo showbody > $HOME/.ttnews/command &
Key F11		A	SM	Exec echo prev > $HOME/.ttnews/command &
Key F12		A	SM	Exec echo next > $HOME/.ttnews/command &
---snip---
... Which means, that if you press Shift-Meta (or Alt on IBM-compatible
keyboards) and F9, you show the list for all news.

The commands recognized at the moment are:
showbody 	- Show the news article 
show body	- Same as above
show article	- Same as above

allnews 	- Open the "news for today"-window
all news	- Same as above

prev 		- Switch to the previous news-item
previous	- Same as above

next 		- Switch to the next news-item

next source	- Switch to the next news agency (source)
nextsource	- Same as above
next agency	- Same as above

read news	- Re-read the news from file (updates the news)
readnews	- Same as above

quit		- Close TT-News
close		- Same as above
exit		- Same as above

1..nrOfItems    - A number jumps to the news-item with that number.


TIPS
----
The program looks best if the window-manager decorations are removed
from the main window (the article window is a TOOL-window, and thus have
no decorations). In .fvwm2rc this is easily done like this:
---snip---
Style "ttnews"		CirculateSkip, \
			StaysPut, \
			NoTitle, \
			Sticky, \
			WindowListSkip, \
			SkipMapping
Style "News for today:" Icon interface.xpm,\
			Title, \
			Slippery
---snip---
"News for today:" is the name the allNewsWindow gets when it is shown. I
want that one to have a border like normal programs, and this is shown above
for fvwm2. How this is done in other window managers is something I really 
don't know, I'm simply too tied to fvwm.

The program can be "swallowed" by FvwmButtons (and probably some other
buttonbars, thou the Gnome Panel is not happy about it). You achive this (in
fvwm2) by adding the following line to your .fvwm2rc:
---snip---
*FvwmButtons(16x1, Frame 1, Swallow (Close) "ttnews" 'Exec ttnews &' )
---snip---
Note that the actual numbers may have to be changed to suit your particular
configuration. Moreover, the default skin has some problems in the button-
bar, so the skin "dockable" should be used instead (and that one has colors 
that blends better with the gnome-like panels, dull grey). 
 

HELP NEEDED
-----------
Your help with this program IS needed. Mail me (Simon) if you want to help, 
or if you've made additions to the code. To write "servers" / feeders for 
the program is especially appreciated, and remember that you can write those
using your language of choice.

To write a server/feeder, consult the documentation in the feeders-dir 
(README.FEEDERS).

I would also appreciate some new skins. Artists! Come to the rescue!


WEB
---
http://www.student.lu.se/~etn97ksi/sim_home/ttnews.html


CONTACT/CREDITS
---------------
Simon Kagstrom, simon.kagstrom.864@NOSPAMMINGstudent.lu.se, UIN 3772455
Carl Smith (news parser, feeders for bbc, freshmeat and linuxtoday)
Nicholas Daley (feeder for theregister.co.uk)
Rickard Molin (testing).






