lynx-dev ija - a better dejanews archive interface (FYI)

[Kim DeVaughn]

Whilst pawing thru some recent articles in  news.software.readers, I
came across the following, which seems like it might be of interest to
lynx users:

 > From: address@hidden (Asher)
 > Newsgroups: news.software.readers
 > Subject: ANNOUNCE: Ija - access Deja from command line
 > Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 03:07:33 GMT
 > Message-Id: <address@hidden>
 > Organization: Verio
 >
 >
 > Ija is a console program which lets you access Deja's database.  If you're
 > currently using Lynx to access Deja, you should really try Ija.
 >
 > Ija will probably run on any UNIX that has Perl and the LWP package.
 >
 > Ija is an interactive program.  Rather than downloading a big chunk of data,
 > it lets you interrogate Deja iteratively, modifying your query as you go.
 >
 > Check out the home page:
 >
 >  <http://www.magicnet.net/~asher/ija/>

so I thought I'd take a look at it (especially with the ugly changes
that dejanews has been making to their interface).

It really is a nifty little ~7k perl program (actually, it's perl5, so you
may need to alter the 1st line of the script to point to your copy of perl5,
if "perl" invokes perl4 on your system).

A quick example using "ija lynx" gives the following initial output, from
which you can go on from there, using several commands:

-------------
                                 Search Results
Ref Date     From           Newsgroup              Subject
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  0 07/03/99 Vladimir Kuzme relcom.fido.ru.unix.b  Lynx browser and Cyrillic
  1 07/04/99 Max_Adamo      it.comp.linux          Re: HELP uso di Lynx e FTP
  2 07/03/99 climbon        rec.climbing           5.10 Lynx climbing shoes
  3 07/03/99 Oreste Sorace  it.comp.linux          HELP uso di Lynx e FTP
  4 07/03/99 Dmitry Koshevo fido7.ru.suicide       Re: gEJ (BYLO: sLABOSTX)
  5 07/03/99 pimlott        linux.debian.bugs.dis  Bug#40695: lynx: man page ty
  6 07/03/99 Haakon Lugiess news.admin.net-abuse.  Re: Cat Call
  7 07/03/99 Haakon Lugiess news.admin.net-abuse.  Re: Cat Call
  8 07/02/99 Rick0158       alt.games.lynx         Simis has t-tris?
  9 07/02/99 victorgos      comp.os.linux.network  help: Lynx with firewall
 10 07/02/99 Joe            alt.os.linux.mandrake  Re: Lynx fails to work
 11 07/01/99 URDEggMen      alt.music.jethro-tull  Re: This Is! overhauled...
 12 07/01/99 Pelle          comp.os.linux.portabl  ASUS L7300 with Silicon Moti
 13 06/30/99 grave          tw.bbs.comp.dos        lynx
 14 06/30/99 Francesco Poto linux.debian.bugs.dis  Bug#40435: Acknowledgement (
 15 06/30/99 Christoph Mart linux.debian.bugs.dis  Bug#40435: Acknowledgement (
 16 06/29/99 Debian Bug Tra linux.debian.bugs.dis  Unanswered problem reports b
 17 06/28/99 zoiner         alt.os.linux.mandrake  Lynx fails to work
 18 06/28/99 JAGSOFT5       alt.games.lynx         Re: Songbird Press Release -
 19 06/28/99 Biomechanoid   alt.games.lynx         Question about Lynx ROMs.
 20 06/27/99 Weirdmf        alt.games.lynx         what was lynx?
 21 06/27/99 Dave Homenuck  alt.games.lynx         Re: what was lynx?
 22 06/26/99 Paul Donegan   alt.games.lynx         WANTED LYNX GAMES !!!!
 23 06/22/99 Debian Bug Tra linux.debian.bugs.dis  Unanswered problem reports b
 24 06/20/99 Buckyweet      rec.sport.golf         lynx parallax
Results 0 through 24 of about 150000
q
-------------

Commands recognized are:

a [<name>] Author profile.
f <query>  Search for a new query string.
h          Print [this] help message.
l          List current group of messages.
m <1-100>  Set max hits returned. (25 normally)
n          List next group of messages.
p          List previous group of messages.
q          Quit.
r          Print the current message.
s <file>   Save the current message to a file.
t <number> Set the paging threshold - longer articles will be paged.
<ref>      Enter a reference number to view a message.


Seems like a fairly useful tool to add to your toolbox, if you search the
dejanews archives very much.

Just passing the info along ...

/kim