KneePost Binary Posting Script

Quick start:

• To configure for the first time, double-click the applet. The savable preferences are those labeled in blue and the others are grayed out. Click "Save Settings" to save your changes.

• To post a file as an attachment, drop the file(s) onto the KneePost Applet. Thoth must already be running. If not, you will get a warning from KneePost and it will quit.

With help feature on:

Detailed explanation

I felt that the newsreading programs for MacOS 9 lacked in terms of ease for posting and reposting binaries. Most news posting programs are relatively new and only work on OSX, which I don't have. I don't post much, but trying to post the little that I do just bugged me. And thus was born KneePost. I discovered sQuidOmatic much later, but it is difficult to find, way too powerful for me, and I don't post that much.

I'm not an applescript programmer, so I'm not expecting to make this into the latest and greatest thing. And since MacOS 9 and Classic are unfortunately becoming outdated every day... :-( <sigh!> I just want to keep it simple and do its job really well. The program has grown beyond my wildest dreams!! I am open to ideas which would make it nicer, easier, fix bugs, etc. Some help with documentation and the help menus would be MUCH appreciated!

The simplicity is derived from the fact that most of the posting preferences can be set and saved under different "personalities" in Thoth. I only add to those or make a few settings a bit more convenient. The program is very small.

Requirements

• MacOS which is not OSX
• Thoth NewsReader -- any version SHOULD do (should work under YA-NewsWatcher, though not tested)
• Dialog Director scripting addition found at Dialog Director 0.7
• AppleScript
• Standard Additions scripting addition (standard AppleScript addition)
• File IO scripting addition (standard AppleScript addition)

Known Limitations/Problems

• I would love to be able to use help balloons and get rid of this poor excuse of a ReadMe, but the current version of dialog director hasn't yet implemented it fully. :-( UPDATE: a help feature has been added to get around the lack of functionality, but it still doesn't match up to balloon help. Oh, well. Can't have my cake and eat it too.
• There is no way to check in advance if a personality added/chosen in/to KneePost exists in Thoth. The only way to know is to set the personality in a message, and even then, the error shows in Thoth, and doesn't return an error to KneePost. So, there is no way to validate the personalities. You just have to be VERY CAREFUL when you enter a new personality in KneePost. Double-check the spelling, and make sure that that personality exists in Thoth.

Fine Print

KneePost may only be downloaded from http://kneepost.webhop.net Contact me for redistribution.

Version History

1.0b1 (August 1, 2003) initial release to friends and family

1.0b2 (August 7, 2003)

• Complete cosmetic and functional overhaul by using the Dialog Director scripting addition
• Removed repetitive, redundant, and repeating code made obsolete, out dated or inefficient due to use of the aforementioned Dialog Director ;-)
• Created a preferences file to store, well, uh, I don't know, savable preferences?

1.0b3 (August 9, 2003) Not-so-public Public beta release

• Fixes for bugs, incongruities, weird behavior and general annoyances.
• Added a preference for choice of parenthesis
• Added the ability to autoqueue
• Added the option to keep Thoth in the background and displaying a progress bar.
• Tinkered with saved preferences which were not saved properly
• Added a few checks, fail safes and the like to prevent any fatal errors causing the script to abort

1.0b4 (August 20, 2003)

• Fixed an inexcusable bug in which the newsgroups chosen were not always the newsgroups that were posted to. Hey, I have an excuse! However... it was still inexcusable.
• Tinkered with saved preferences again
• Minor bug fixes

1.0b5 - (October 5, 2003)

• Hobbled together more of a semblance of documentation
• Added user option for random header for those who did not want it

1.0b6 -

• Much improved documentation
• Fixed cosmetic button problems
• Window position remembered between uses
• Made most of the buttons smarter
• Added a help button which, unfortunately, doesn't help very much :-D
• Broke a bunch of perfectly working hacks and munges added in beta 4 by doing some of the above. Thus, the newsgroup list and associated buttons are only semi-functional.
• Completely revamped the way the newsgroup list is stored, manipulated, and used. This allowed me to create a nicer looking and more intuitive "delete newsgroups" function, easier method to choose groups, simplified the code, and repaired the broke munges (see previous item). It also paves the way to future feature enhancements.
• Created select all and select none options in the newsgroups section

1.0b7 - (April 10, 2004)

• MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH!!! A dynamic help feature has been added!!! Big enough to call it version 2, but, uh, there was no official version 1... Took ages to figure out. Tried every angle that should have worked but didn't. And then finally it came to me! So, now introducing... a semi-robust help feature. Turn it on and click on various options or help balloons. The uniqueness comes in the fact that I know so little about AppleScript and considering the limitations of Dialog Director, the solution is quite elegant. And doesn't bloat the script. I'm really on cloud nine.
• Added some basic error checking to the "Add Newsgroups" funtion.
• Robust-ified the font declarations so they actually work, as well as prevents display nightmares on machines that didn't have the same system font as mine. :-)
• Prevented folders from being dropped and "posted". Now an smart error box will also show if non-files were dropped on the applet.
• The newsgroup list is now sorted. YAY!!
• Added a line in the config/post window that gives an example of what the subject line of a message would look like using the current option settings. The entire window had to grow and it was a bit of a pain moving things, but it was worth it. I think it's way too cool!
• Made the prefixing of "POST:" to the subject line an option rather than forced.
• Added a line which gives the total files size of all of the items about to be posted. Neat feature. semi-practical.
• Made some icons!! No more boring script application icon. :-D If you like the boring look, you can delete these icons by going to the Finder's "Get Info" window and deleting the custom icon. :-(
• Dynamic setting and checking of the required additions files. Portable!