Indeed, since Chin will neither revise Yarn further, nor release the
source code - Yarn has been dead in the water, independent of OS, for
some time now.
In light of the previous I offer a new tool I happened on by accident,
when writing the author of an old mail reading tool:
is a URL or ftp site that will fetch you an offline message reader that
is almost a complete replacement for yarn (?!). It unique feature is that
it reads just about every news, mail, bbs, instant message format you can
think of. It comes with predefined formats for reading yarn folders and
an old version of the yarn data files. If the thing does not know how to
read your file or message format, you can define new formats in a fairly
easy dialogue screen.
Some of the overlaps between yarn utilities, this program, and the history
of offline message processing interest me a lot. My general feeling is that
this program does a better job of processing mail, but yarn is better for
maintaining an ongoing news base. Some of the things readmail does that
yarn does not:
1) It reads soup packets directly -- no separate step or program to
import message and reformat them
2) Its sorts all messages -- news, mail, whatever -- by subject or author.
So you have threads for any type of message
3) You can select, mark messages and then operate on the set you selected
(that is, save them to a file, delete them, etc.)
4) It numbers the messages (like the lynx browser can do, and mailx), and
you can go to messages by entering their number.
5) It has optional mouse support, you can turn off and on. This includes
cut and paste between messages.
So you can paste in part of one message to a reply to another one.
In general, this program uses the famous Borland, Turbo Pascal editor
edit object that has been so popular with shareware authors.
6) You can open different news groups, different mail folders -- in
different moveable, resizable text windows (remember the Borland
TB interface), and move between them for cut/paste, etc.
7) You can mark and quote multiple message bodies in one message reply.
8) It manages multiple signatures, somewhat like the YES addition to
yarn.
9) Customizable message data-bases. You can open a collection of
different messsage files, and readmail will combine and remember
them as one message list.
10) It has its own internal editor (again the Borland TB editor), and
lets you select both an external editor and external message viewer.
11) It has a very useful preview window, like the one in MS outlook, that
can be resized or eliminated. With it, you see the first few lines of
each message as you browse a list of messages.
What does this thing not do? It is a 16-bit application, with limitations
on memory and a limited disk cache. It does not pre-filter or score
messages. It does not include a real news base, with expiration, message
ID tracking, etc. It does not make direct provisions for handling
MIME encloded messages, viewing images, etc. However, I think this can
be fixed by using metamail as its external viewer.
This program, called a beta version, was written in 1995 and I dont
think the author has much interest in continuing development, although
there appeared to be a time when it was actively developed. It seems
to fill some holes that yarn always had on the functional, user friendly
side.
Im currently trying to figure out how to integrate the thing with yarn.
See what you think, and excuse the long e-mail.