                   _  _               ___ _        _      
                  | \| |_____ __ ____/ __| |_ __ _| |_ ___
                  | .` / -_) V  V (_-<__ \  _/ _` |  _(_-<
                  |_|\_\___|\_/\_//__/___/\__\__,_|\__/__/
                                                          
                            (c) James Bursa, 1999

Introduction

NewsStats analyses newsgroups or email mailboxes giving information such as
the number of messages about a particular subject or the duration of a
thread.

NewsStats works by requesting newsgroup messages from a message server
program, such as Newsbase. It will only work if you are using Newsbase to
store your newsgroups or emails, or a compatible program. A web browser is
also required to display the analysis.


Installation

NewsStats is written in Python, so requires the Python runtime resources. You
can get this from

  http://eh.org/~laurie/comp/acorn/ropython/runtime.html

Install it as described in the archive. You are now ready to run NewsStats.


Usage

Double-click on the NewsStats icon to load it to the iconbar. Make sure
Newsbase or an equivalent is loaded, then click on the NewsStats icon. Choose
the newsgroup or email mailbox to analyse from the pop-up menu, and click
Analyse to start.

Analysing a newsgroups can take a long time, especially if there are many
messages. For example, analysing a small newsgroup with 50 messages takes
about 25 seconds on an A7000+. A window will show the progress of the
analysis.

When the analysis is complete, the results will be displayed in your browser.
Each link on the first page corresponds to one of the headers in the news
postings or emails, and leads to a page giving a count of each content for
that header. The duration is calculated from the Date header.

Interactive help is supported.


Possible problems

Problem: I get the message News Stats could not find a message server.
         Please load a server (eg. Newsbase), and try again. every time I
         click on the NewsStats icon.

Solution: Load Newsbase or a compatible message server. If it is already
          loaded, wait a moment before trying again.


Problem: I get the error Permission denied when I want to analyse my
         emails.

Solution: You need to remove an access restriction from the email mailbox or
          newsgroup which gives this error.
          With Newsbase, click MENU on the Newsbase icon, choose Setup...,
          click Mail & news storage, choose the group from the pop-up menu,
          and choose None from the Restriction pop-up menu.


Problem: I get File not found errors from my browser.

Solution: NewsStats deletes the result pages it generated when it is quit, so
          leave it running while you look through the results.


Problem: NewsStats crashes or doesn't work with Messenger Pro.

Solution: This may be due to a bug in older version of Messenger Pro. Upgrade
          to version 2.09 or later.


Conditions

NewsStats is (c) James Bursa. It is freeware and may be distributed unaltered
freely. No responsibility can be accepted for loss caused by use of this
program.


Credits

NewsStats uses the mxDateTime library,  1997,1998, Copyright by Marc-Andr
Lemburg. For more information see the file !NewsStats.py.DateTime.ReadMe.

Thanks to Laurence Tratt for porting Python to RISC OS.


Contacting me

If you make any changes to the source, please get in touch so I can merge
them with the original.

If you have any feedback please get in touch.

Post:	James Bursa
	64 Gilbert Road
	Cambridge
	CB4 3PD

E-mail: james@bursa.freeuk.com

Latest versions of my programs should be at
	http://www.bursa.freeuk.com/
