Subject: Chinese articles displayer on the Internet (for X windows only)

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 90 00:35:14 CDT

Dear everyone,

     This is a new Chinese software announcement for use with Unix and
X window, and across the Internet.  The current release is for beta test
only.  You will need access to X window facility to use the software or
it's public services.

     This software is part of the incad project to bring Chinese news
to the Internet community by and large.  This is first part of a series
of later releases for the afore-mentioned purpose.  The current release
is in binaries only and for some popular machines; it is available via
anonymous ftp host news.cc.umanitoba.ca.

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

     FOR DEMONSTRATION (for Internet users only):
     try "telnet vlsi.cs.umn.edu 2020" if you are running X with Unix; for
     VMS X users, try either the above or "telnet /port=2020 vlsi.cs.umn.edu"

     Substitute 128.101.230.15 for vlsi.cs.umn.edu if it says host unknown.

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

==========
The following two documents, bundled with the release, might be of help:
==========

          XINCAD(l)         MISC. REFERENCE MANUAL PAGES          XINCAD(l)

          NAME
               xincad - network-extensible Chinese articles displayer (X)

          SYNOPSIS
               xincad [ -s ] [ -display DISPLAY ]

               xincad [ -d ] [ -port PORT ] [ -s ]

          DESCRIPTION
               xincad is an  interactive,  network-based  Chinese  articles
               displayer  which displays BIG5-encoded Chinese articles on X
               windows, with (hopefully) user-friendly controls  especially
               when browsing through many articles.

               Window size can be adjusted to the viewer's preference  when
               a  window  manager  is  in  use.   User operations supported
               include  "summaries",   "articles-selection",   "page-down",
               "page-up",  "first-page",  and "quit", which are implemented
               as control panel buttons selectable using the mouse.

          OPTIONS
               -s   Force instant update of the summaries file.

               -d   Run xincad in server mode at default network port 2020.
                    The server can be accessed by " telnet HOST 2020 " from
                    a Unix (and some other) system that runs an  X  Server,
                    and has given HOST access rights by the xhost command.

               -port PORT
                    When used with -d option, the  server  is  run  at  the
                    given TCP PORT instead of the default port 2020.

               -display DISPLAY
                    Display xincad windows on the given X DISPLAY. If  this
                    option  is  not  selected,  xincad  will use the (Unix)
                    DISPLAY environment variable.

          AUTHOR
               Aaron Y.T. Cheung, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.

          SEE ALSO
               xhzview(l) which also displays GB-encoded articles.

          CAVEATS
               The article filenames are sorted alphabetically (instead  of
               numerically)  for  the  summary listings, and therefore it's
               recommended  that  all  articles   be   given   fixed-length
               "pseudo-numeric" filenames, e.g., 4 and only 4 digits.

               Compatibility problems with Sun's  X11/NeWS  server  running
               OpenWindows Version 2 and olwm.

          Sun Release 4.0  Last change: 12 September 1990                 1

===============================================================================

                                                       ------------------------
                                                            Aaron Y.T. Cheung
  An incomplete guide to using the xincad software       [email-masked]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                The executable program,  called "xincad", is machine
        dependent and is located in the "bin" subdirectory which you
        might want to include in your $path.

        The Unix style manual page is in subdirectory "man".

                This  directory  (Xincad/)  must reside in your home
        directory, aka rn's News/ or elm's Mail/.  In addition:

        - big5-encoded articles must be in $HOME/Xincad/big5
        - executable program "xincad" must be in $HOME/Xincad/bin
        - "chinese.16" fontset must be in $HOME/Xincad/fonts
        - "server.msg" must be in $HOME/Xincad/misc (please update)
        - "summaries" & "logfile" auto-created in $HOME/Xincad/misc

        Typical invocations (you must have some X display ready):

        (1). xincad
        (2). xincad -s
        (3). xincad -d
        (4). xincad -d -port 1997
        (5). xincad -display abc.def.edu:0.0

                The xincad server, invoked with the -d  option,  can
        be  assessed  by  e.g.,  "telnet abc.def.edu 2020" if you're
        using Unix or  VMS;  though  some  VMS  networking  software
        employs  a  slightly  different syntax of "telnet /port=2020
        abc.def.edu".

                The xincad server is terminated by  sending  a  sure
        kill signal to its process-id. (e.g., "ps wux" then "kill -9
        <PROCESS-ID>" on  SunOS'es).  The  lifetime  of  the  xincad
        server  will  be  until  the system is rebooted, if it's not
        killed or terminated abnormally.

                If the system says "bind: Address  already  in  use"
        when  you  invoke  the  server,  it's  probably  due to that
        another copy of xincad is running at the same port, or  it's
        being  used  by  some other applications.  If neither is the
        case, wait for a little while and  try  again,  or  you  can
        specify an alternate port.

                Your server is a standalone  application,  and  will
        not  announce  itself to other peers (for this release).  So
        unless you advertise your service to the public, you can  be
        relatively sure that no one will probably access your server
        except perhaps your friends who either  "guessed  out"  your
        running  the xincad daemon, or you told them so...  In later
        releases, the xincad servers will communicate with peers  on
        the net (if you choose to allow it to).

                If you run xincad in server mode, be sure to  update
        the  file  $HOME/Xincad/misc/server.msg,  which is basically
        the "motd" (message of the day).

                You should only try accessing the xincad server from
        a  host on which you're logged in from it's X display, e.g.,
        from a Sun/DEC/HP/Apollo workstation console  running  an  X
        Server.

                If you don't see an  expected  xincad  window  after
        telneting  to  its  server port, it might be due to that you
        haven't given the serving host permission to connect to your
        display.   The  way  to  fix  it  is  to  run,  e.g., "xhost
        abc.def.edu", or just simply "xhost +" which instruct your X
        server to entertain all connection requests.

                If the xincad server doesn't run as  expected,  make
        sure  you  have  the  executable program "xincad" located in
        $HOME/Xincad/bin.  In other  words,  $HOME/Xincad/bin/xincad
        must exist and must be executable.

                All these having said, you  should  be  able  to  at
        least get a Chinese screen on your X display by now.

                If you're using X terminals, you might not  be  able
        to access the xincad server, though you should still be able
        to display big5 articles by running xincad directly.

                In case you noticed the difference  across  systems,
        the row flashings when the user clicks open a file, likening
        the Macintosh, is implemented for Sun3, Sparcs  and  Sun386i
        running  SunOS'es  only,  for this release.  By the way, the
        flashing effect might be reduced if  you're  running  xincad
        across a slow network.

                xincad has been tested with a few X window managers,
        viz., twm (likening the Mac), MIT's olwm (Openlook), and mwm
        (Motif) and with a few X Servers and X terminals, and it has
        demonstrated general compatibility.

                However, there is known  problems  of  compatibility
        with Sun's X11/NeWS Server running OpenWindows Version 2; so
        if you are running OpenWindows and don't get xincad to work,
        you have to wait for the next release.

                I'd  appreciate  your  comments  and  bug   reports.
        Hope it won't crash on you too often. /aaron.