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https://github.com/marnanel/yarrow

Yarrow is a web client for the Cambridge RGTP bulletin board protocol.
https://github.com/marnanel/yarrow

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Yarrow is a web client for the Cambridge RGTP bulletin board protocol.

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README 

        

   $Header: /var/cvs/yarrow/index.php,v 1.8 2002/12/08 16:14:39 marnanel

   Exp $

   

Yarrow: the manual



Contents



    1. [1]Introduction

    2. [2]Getting started as a user

         1. [3]Basics

         2. [4]GROGGS

         3. [5]A glossary

         4. [6]Finding out more

    3. [7]Getting started as an administrator

         1. [8]Installing yarrow

         2. [9]Installing your own RGTP servers

    4. [10]The future

    5. [11]Credits

       

1. Introduction



   This is the manual for yarrow. Yarrow lets you read RGTP bulletin

   boards, such as [12]GROGGS at Cambridge University, using a web

   browser.

   

   Some other pages worth looking at: [13]screen shots, [14]contact

   information, and [15]links to other RGTP sites.

   

2. Getting started as a user



2.1. Basics



   Yarrow is most commonly used with GROGGS, so I'll use that as an

   example here. The procedure is fairly similar for any RGTP board,

   though. You'll also need a copy of yarrow to play with; if you don't

   have one locally, you can use the example one at

   [16]http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/gossip. There's also [17]a copy running

   inside the University Data Network, but that may not always be running

   the most recent version of the program. If you want to set up a copy

   on your own computer, skip ahead to the section "Getting started as an

   administrator".

   

   Firstly, it's useful to set up a yarrow account, so that all state

   (such as whether or not you've read a particular item) can be held on

   the yarrow server. It's not necessary to set one up; if you go to

   [18]the GROGGS index without having logged in, for example, you can

   simply click the "visitor" button to read the whole of GROGGS. (You

   might like to try doing that now for a bit.) However, you'll need an

   account if you want to post, so let's set one up: click "log in" on

   the right-hand menu, and then "get a new account". Enter your email

   address, which yarrow uses to identify you, and press OK.

   

   While you're waiting for the confirmation email from the server, let's

   discuss how RGTP works. An RGTP board consists of several discussion

   threads, called items. Any user with posting access can create new

   items, or add replies to the end of an item. Items have a fixed

   maximum size, so when one gets too long, you have to start another,

   with a name more pertinent to whatever the discussion's about now

   (this helps minimise the distance between subject lines and discussion

   topics that's so common on Usenet). The system tracks when a new item

   is a continuation of an old one, so it's possible to follow a long

   discussion through-- this is known as a thread.

   

   You should have your email from the server by now. Click the "change

   your password" link, and fill in the address you used, the password

   you were given, and two copies of a new password. Once you've clicked

   OK, you'll be logged into yarrow.

   

2.2. GROGGS



   Click the "gossip" link in this page (or just go back to [19]the main

   yarrow page) and you'll be presented with a list of servers. We want

   to read GROGGS, so click on the "groggs" link in the left-hand column.

   

   You're now looking at [20]the index of items on GROGGS-- well, the

   most recent of them: you can page back all the way to 1995, when

   GROGGS took its current form. Each item shows the date it was most

   recently added to (with the newer ones towards the top), the number

   ("#") of replies to that item, the name of the user who most recently

   added to it, and the subject. The items in bold, which will be all of

   them at present, are items which contain replies you haven't read;

   those in italics are full items, which will have been continued

   further up the index.

   

   Click any of the subject lines to read that item and all the replies.

   Each reply is preceded by a block giving the user's email address, and

   the date of posting, on the right. On the left is the user's grogname:

   a fanciful, possibly descriptive, piece of text which is associated

   with that particular user. If you were logged in as a regular user, at

   the bottom of the page there'd be [21]a box to add your own reply.

   

2.3. A glossary



   Spend a little time exploring GROGGS now. Here's some information to

   help you explore it.

   

   hup

          Most RGTP clients list the index with the items that have most

          recently been added to towards the top. Most groggers only read

          the top few items in the index. So if you feel an item deserves

          more discussion, you can append a reply saying "hup", which

          will bring it to the top of the index. You can theoretically

          hup any item (unless it's been continued), but doing so with

          items more than a few years old is considered odd.

          

   grogvote

          an annual contest to nominate groggers in various categories.

          (The categories are also nominated by the users, but "Star of

          GROGGS" and "Sage of GROGGS" are traditional.) The results are

          read out every year at the [22]GROGGS garden party, which

          happens during Cambridge May Week.

          

   [23]ucam.chat

          a newsgroup internal to Cambridge University. In recent years,

          it has taken a lot of the traffic (and traditions) which once

          were part of GROGGS.

          

   grogger; grogging

          a user of GROGGS; to use GROGGS

          

   GREED

          An important RGTP-reading program; it runs under Emacs. See

          [24]the GREED home page for more information.

          

   Infinity Questions (IQ)

          A very long-running game on GROGGS. One user picks a subject

          and the others have to ask "yes/no" questions to work out what

          it is. Rounds can sometimes last months. New players should be

          warned that the definition of "subject" is rather looser than

          in many similar games: the subjects of previous rounds have

          included: the autonomic nervous system; honesty; [25]PuTTY;

          cork (the substance); Cambridge, Massachusetts; the hosts and

          routers of the global Internet; Leo Blair; the London Eye; a

          backup tape for chiark.greenend.org.uk; and the White House's

          red encrypted telephone to the Kremlin.

          

   ITWSBT

          I think we should be told

          

   YA(x)AICMFP

          You are (x) and I claim my five pounds

          

   TIOSSUOTW(x)TIWPAO (and variants)

          [26]This is obviously some strange usage of the word (x) that I

          wasn't previously aware of

          

   SWITCH NOBOYDIE / SNB / DoeS aNyBody...

          [27]Chris Boyd (cb113) was a user of GROGGS who would always

          answer questions of the form "Does anyone know the way to

          Arbury?" with "Yes". To work around this, people began writing

          SWITCH NOBOYDIE before such questions, which soon became SNB.

          It's also often mixed into the question itself: "DoeS aNyBody

          know the way to Arbury?"

          

   spqr1

          any Cambridge person (since this is the general form of a

          Cambridge user id)

          

2.4. Finding out more



   If, now you've looked around, you'd like to participate in GROGGS, all

   you need to do is register for a GROGGS account. The link to do this

   is given on [28]the login page, but you can go there directly if you'd

   rather: [29]http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/gossip/groggs/newbie. Once

   you've filled that in, you'll get email back explaining what to do

   next.

   

   If you find any problems, email the GROGGS editors; their address

   always appears in the [30]message of the day.

   

3. Getting started as an administrator



   (This section is a little more sketchy than I'd like. Any help would

   be appreciated.)

   

3.1. Installing yarrow



   There isn't (yet) any .deb or .rpm packaged version of yarrow, though

   it's on the drawing board. Instead, you'll need to [31]download the

   tarballs and install things yourself.

   

   You'll need a fairly recent version of [32]Python-- 2.1 should be good

   enough-- and (obviously) a working web server.

   

   You'll also need the Python Distutils installed. Many versions of

   Python have them installed already; I recommend, when you're following

   the instructions here, that you assume yours does until you find it

   doesn't. If yours turns out not to have them, you can find them in the

   Debian package [33]python2.1-dev (or [34]python2.2-dev, depending on

   the version of Python you're using; nothing's stopping you installing

   both). RPM users can [35]look on rpmfind. And everyone can get them

   from [36]the Python website.

   

   Unpack the tarball:

   

     tar xvzf yarrow-1.2.0.tar.gz

     

   and move into the directory it created:

   

     cd yarrow-1.2.0

     

   Now, as root, run

   

     make install

     

   If it all worked, then

   

     [37]http://localhost/cgi-bin/yarrow.cgi

     

   should be the address of a new and working RGTP server!

   

   Go ahead and test it by clicking on the entry for GROGGS in the menu,

   and then the "Yes, I'm just visiting" button. The page should take a

   good while to appear the first time, because yarrow has to download

   the whole index for the past seven years or so-- there's about half a

   megabyte. Fortunately, this only happens the first time you read from

   any server: after that, it's all cached.

   

   Some odds and ends:

     * If you don't have root access to the machine you're installing

       yarrow onto, you'll have to install things more or less yourself.

       You can tell yarrow where to find the files by modifying

       yarrow.conf; if you have to move yarrow.conf itself, simply change

       the definition of the variable "baseconf" in config.py.

     * You may also like to install some other RGTP clients; there are

       several listed on the [38]links page.

     * If you need any help, please do email me-- I need to know how this

       section can be improved.

     * Note that there is no gopher support in this version. I may add it

       back in if anyone asks for it.

       

3.2. Installing your own RGTP servers



   This is rather more difficult. There are, as far as I know, two RGTP

   server codebases in the world. One is the one [39]GROGGS runs on,

   which has never been officially released. The other is one I'm

   writing, called [40]spurge; it's been used effectively in the past,

   but it's in no way stable enough for a production environment. I hope

   that in the future it will be possible to use spurge to run a reliable

   RGTP server; in the meantime, you're welcome to download it and try it

   out. Offers of help and messages of encouragement are welcomed.

   

4. The future



   This project has largely met its original goals: I learned a good deal

   both about Python and about web applications, it was both challenging

   and fun to write, and it got a good number of people interested once

   more in GROGGS. It also sparked the imagination of others, bringing

   forth other projects in their own right (notably [41]Vendepacx). Now

   that all this is done, my hopes for its future are:

     * that it will serve as an accessible method of using GROGGS for a

       new generation of groggers

     * that it can be packaged into .deb and .rpm form, and, perhaps,

       become a package within the Debian project

     * that (combined with a stable server) it can become a viable option

       for people looking to run a small, fast and simple discussion

       system. In diversity is strength.

       

5. Credits



   [42]John Stark (jas11) created GROGGS. [43]Ian Jackson (iwj10) created

   RGTP. The interface of yarrow was largely modelled after

   [44]LiveJournal, which was created by [45]Brad Fitzpatrick. The

   following people, in alphabetical order, have given help, advice or

   moral support during the growth of yarrow: [46]Peter Colledge,

   [47]Natalie Currie, [48]Martin Hardcastle, [49]Michelle Hart, [50]Neil

   Roques, [51]Firinel Taranen, [52]Simon Tatham. Thanks to all of you.

   There are probably more people I've left out; if one of them's you,

   please do tell me.

   

yarrow



   [53]Downloads

   [54]Documentation

   [55]Screen shots

   [56]Links

   [57]Contact

   

Get more



   [58]Try it yourself

   [59]Freshmeat

   [60]CVS

   [61]Home

   

Site



   [62]valid HTML

   [63]valid CSS



References



   1. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/docs/index.php#introduction

   2. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/docs/index.php#user

   3. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/docs/index.php#basics

   4. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/docs/index.php#groggs

   5. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/docs/index.php#glossary

   6. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/docs/index.php#more

   7. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/docs/index.php#admin

   8. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/docs/index.php#clients

   9. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/docs/index.php#servers

  10. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/docs/index.php#future

  11. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/docs/index.php#credits

  12. http://www.groggs.group.cam.ac.uk/groggs/

  13. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/screenshots/

  14. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/contact/

  15. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/links/

  16. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/gossip

  17. http://www.groggs.group.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/yarrow.cgi

  18. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/gossip/groggs/browse

  19. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/gossip

  20. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/screenshots/browse

  21. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/screenshots/edit

  22. http://www.sandtreader.com/paul/groggs/springfield.html

  23. http://www.ucam.org/chat/

  24. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~owend/free/GREED.html

  25. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

  26. http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/fsphysik/dokumente/42/1.98/Hichhiker.html

  27. http://homepages.ed.ac.uk/cboyd/

  28. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/screenshots/login

  29. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/gossip/groggs/newbie

  30. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/gossip/groggs/motd

  31. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/download/

  32. http://www.python.org/

  33. http://packages.debian.org/stable/interpreters/python2.1-dev.html

  34. http://packages.debian.org/stable/interpreters/python2.2-dev.html

  35. http://www.rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=distutils

  36. http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/download.html

  37. http://localhost/cgi-bin/yarrow.cgi

  38. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/links/

  39. http://www.groggs.group.cam.ac.uk/groggs/

  40. http://freshmeat.net/projects/spurge

  41. http://petec.sunnynight.org.uk/rgtp/

  42. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/slugvine/

  43. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ijackson/

  44. http://www.livejournal.com/

  45. http://www.bradfitz.com/

  46. http://pinkstuff.publication.org.uk/~petec/

  47. http://www.ruby.org.uk/

  48. http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mjh/

  49. http://pinkstuff.publication.org.uk/~chess/

  50. http://pinkstuff.publication.org.uk/~neil/

  51. http://pinkstuff.publication.org.uk/~firinel/

  52. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/

  53. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/download/

  54. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/docs/

  55. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/screenshots/

  56. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/links/

  57. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/contact/

  58. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/gossip/

  59. http://freshmeat.net/projects/yarrow

  60. http://source.publication.org.uk/yarrow/Yarrow/

  61. http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/yarrow/

  62. http://validator.w3.org/check/referer

  63. http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer