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      FidoNews 4-17                Page 10                   4 May 1987


     Milo Tsukroff, 142/216

                       FNEWSPRN -- A FidoNews Utility


       If you're like me,  you look forward eagerly to the next  issue
     of  FidoNews.  It's  always full of interesting articles,  notes,
     suggestions,  announcements,  or  whatever.   It  adds  an  extra
     'flavor' that so many non-FidoNet BBS's lack.

       The  biggest  problem  I've been having has been reading it.  I
     never seem to have the time to sit down and  browse  through  it,
     and  printing  it  all out seems to be an enormous waste of paper
     when all that I want is one or two articles.  So, to alleviate my
     problems, I've written a utility program that I call FNEWSPRN.  I
     wrote  it in Microsoft BASIC on the WANG APC,  because that's the
     computer that's on my desk  at  work.  I  tried  to  make  it  as
     'structured' as I could,  and as generic as possible,  so that it
     would be easy to work with and also run on many  different  types
     of microcomputers.

       The  program  allows you to see what FidoNews issues are in the
     current directory,  view an individual  one,  or  print  selected
     pages.  It  doesn't use any special graphics.  It does run slower
     than I would like, even when compiled,  if it's running on a 4.77
     Mhz PC.  On faster machines, it runs at an acceptable speed.

       I've  been  told  that FNEWSPRN needs to be improved.  I agree,
     but the lack of time that  prompted  me  to  finally  write  this
     utility  keeps  me from making the effort immediately.  The major
     things will have to be,  1) A way  to  handle  archived  FidoNews
     issues;  and  2)  An on-line interface for use as a BBS "Outside"
     function.

       There has been some EchoTalk as to where and to  whom  FidoNews
     'belongs.' As far as I am concerned, its current IFNA sponsorship
     is  fine with me,  as the current Editor seems to be doing a fine
     job.   My  FNEWSPRN  utility  is  my  effort  at  supporting  the
     magazine.  Please feel free to distribute it,  and to make copies
     available to BBS callers for use on their machines.

       FNEWSPRN is not an official  IFNA  utility.  Instead,  per  the
     Editor's suggestion,  it is released to the public domain for the
     benefit of all.  If you like it,  thank IFNA.  If you don't  like
     it, write your own version and send me a copy.

       You can file request FNEWSPRN.BAS, 14,980 bytes;  FNEWSPRN.EXE,
     59,658  bytes;  or  FNEWSPRN.ARC,  6,351  bytes,  from  my  node,
     142/216.  The  .BAS  file  is  in  ASCII  format.  The  .ARC file
     contains only the BASIC file;  crunching on  the  .EXE  file  was
     minimal.  Or,  you can log on and download any of these directly.
     Enjoy it!

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