
WARNING: DO NOT USE THIS PROGRAM
--------------------------------

I have made a diligent effort to ensure that this program will not damage 
your data or hardware, but I am a simple-minded imbecile, and it's entirely 
possible that I've inadvertently created a monster. So, I URGE YOU TO 
IMMEDIATELY DESTROY YOUR COPY OF THIS PROGRAM and never never never use it.

If you choose to ignore my warning and this program destroys your computer, 
makes your cat pregnant, causes you to grow hair where you don't want it, or 
does anything else that you or anyone else do not like...tough noogies. It's 
not my problem. You have been warned.


=======================================================

DIGEST READER v1.89f, copyright David L. Bergart, 1996.

bodafu@redactor.com 

This program is FREE SOFTWARE.
Distribution in unmodified form is unrestricted

=======================================================



DESCRIPTION
-----------

This program reads RFC 1153 digests, as used by most 
Internet mailing lists. It requires MS Windows version 3.1. 
It will not run under earlier version of Windows, nor will 
it run under Windows NT.

The basic operation is like that of any file viewer or text
editor. You can load a digest file via the reader's Files menu, 
you can pass the name of the file on the command line, 
or you can associate the digest file with the reader 
via Program Manager's File menu.

Once a digest is loaded, the program presents you with a list 
of message subject-lines, and a list of senders names. Just 
click on an entry in either list, and the associated digest 
article will be shown in the text window. The subject list can 
be sorted, or viewed in digest order. The sender's names are 
always sorted. You can copy an article to the clipboard with 
reply-quotation, or save it to an archive digest. Text can be 
Rot13 encrypted/decrypted. The article text and the lists can 
be searched. An alternate article separator can be defined, 
which allows reading a variety of data files as though they were 
digests. An external viewer can be defined to handle articles 
that exceed the text-length limit of the internal viewer.
URLs can be passed to external programs. Articles can be 
killfiled by subject or sender.

Detailed instructions can be found in the help file.


A couple of things added since the help file was created:

   When the lists have the focus, left/right arrow will 
   shift focus between the lists. Tab circulates focus 
   between the two lists and the article window. 
   PageUp/PageDn will always page the article window, 
   even if the lists have focus. The splitter bar between
   the lists and the article window is dragable. 


INSTALLATION
------------

Put DIGEST.EXE in any convenient directory. 

Put CMDIALOG.VBX and CTL3DV2.DLL into your Windows system
directory -- unless they are already present.

*DO NOT* leave copies of CMDIALOG.VBX and CTL3DV2.DLL in the directory 
where you've put DIGEST.EXE (unless, of course, you've put it in the 
Windows system directory). If you don't install CTL3DV2.DLL correctly, 
it will tell you so when you try to run Digest Reader.

This program is written in Visual BASIC, so you must have a copy of 
VBRUN300.DLL in your Windows system directory. It is available at 
anonymous FTP sites such as CICA and SIMTEL.


CONTACTING THE AUTHOR
---------------------

All comments, suggestions, and (ESPECIALLY) bug reports are welcome.
There is no need to register this program, but if you let me know that
you are using it, my curiosity will be satisfied and I will be able to 
notify you of bug-fixes and new versions.

You can email me at bodafu@redactor.com



Done.




