This is a reverse history of changes to HyperNews. Each new release
will be announced via a response to this page, so if you subscribe to
this page, you will get email for each announcement.
Please don't respond to this page with anything that is not related
to the HyperNews history.
March 21, 1997 - Version 1.9.4
Fix members-only posting restriction.
Remove references to display_Icons.pl and other deleted files.
Fix smart text preformatting of common prefix lines.
Use different HTML tags on edit-response form to be
compatible with more browsers.
Move hnrc into Admin directory. This is necessary for
secure use of the .cgi suffix.
Allow installation via the Admin directory.
Include setup*.cgi symbolic links.
Redirect sendmail errors and output to /dev/null.
Use sendmail version 8 style for default options.
Produce default HyperNews@hostname addresses.
$externalSecurity configuration option. If set,
HyperNews won't change the password file, and users
must be authenticated external to HyperNews.
Option to reverse the normal order of messages in the
outline. This only applies to new postings, but applies
to every level of the tree. It does not affect order of
thread traversal or inlining (presumably you want to
read in normal time order).
Email postings by non-members to members-only forums
should get reject mail.
March 4, 1997 - Version 1.9.3
More minor bug fixes and clean ups.
Lock the right files when rebuilding response lists - this bug
doesn't result in any permanent loss, and only
rarely does it merely appear that everything was lost.
Remove the source message bodies after moving to new location.
This is to make indexing work more reasonably.
Fix rejection of email without a destination or with incorrect
permissions.
Forward email postings to right place if messages have moved.
Always use prefix of the URL used to
access a page in accessing other pages and generating email.
Check that destination is not a subdirectory of source when
moving responses to the same forum.
Smart text: Disable "
Oct 10, 1996 - Version 1.9.2
More minor bug fixes.
Fix -I etc on setup.pl.
Escape single quotes in headerText, footerText, bodytag.
Netscape 2.x crashes when images for anchors with
JavaScript don't have WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes.
Easily fixed, but
Upgrade your browser anyway!
Fixed embedding of HyperNews in other frames - another
JavaScript error, my fault this time.
New icons for outline and inline selection, changed
commands a bit too.
Fix use of $hnEmailNotify in edit-response.pl.
Allow either 'get' or 'get.cgi' in recognizing path prefix.
Aug 20, 1996 - Version 1.9.1
Fix dropped name and home URL for non-members - this
is a bit more serious, but the fix is simple and posted on
the bugs page.
Allow missing ".html" on destination when moving messages.
Allow */* as well as image/gif.
Add some JavaScript help messages for command buttons.
Some clean ups for MS Internet Explorer 3.0.
Fix escaping of title text when moving messages.
Fix fixPerlPath to include -wpi
Fix broken "Don't Notify me" when posting messages.
Fix mail-incoming for message IDs containing addresses
such as [123.456.789.000].
Change encryption algorithm to support use of MD5.
Now we use all of the encrypted password as the salt for
crypt, and this should make no difference to old passwords
that were created with a 2-char salt.
June 7, 1996 - Version 1.9 final
Several incoming email fixes.
Add optional email address per forum (base article).
Use only one submit button for edit-member.pl and
edit-subscribe.pl
Change "Inherit" to "Not Specified".
Change "Embed" to "Inline".
Fix missing names on Re lines.
Change display of messages - wrap body with a table.
Fix refreshing of outline frame after adding a message.
Fix missing uplinks in moved messages.
May 21, 1996 - Version 1.9B5.7
Fixed broken nickname creation.
Fix missing Re lines in email.
Unescape email subjects that have HTML special chars.
Fix some indenting errors in HTML-to-text for email.
Stop being confused by base articles with 'get' in the name.
Fixed redirect after deletion.
Delay rebuilding response lists until needed - makes
admin much faster.
Write transaction logs for changes to people and messages.
Change frame display.
Support for netscape server added.
Change terminology: "Response" to "Message".
Protect $hnPeople directory, and $hndocs if reading is
members-only
Fix unsubscribe of self when posting.
Fix case where old members without userid fields appear to be
newly joining members.
Fix display of embedded responses with unknown authors.
Fix some quoting/escaping problems.
Added icons for all the operations - improvements appreciated.
New feature: incoming mail to HyperNews address now is
in alpha testing. Look in mail-incoming.pl for details.
Mar 29, 1996 - Version 1.9B5.6
Fix detection of group membership.
Update password of email address when nickname password changes.
Disallow relative URLs for responses, but use them internally.
Disallow editing responses with edit-article.pl
Merge separate Move and Delete forms into one, using
admin-responses.pl. This also allows bulk move and delete
by merely automating each separate move or delete.
Add optional support for Netscape Frames. The use of frames
works well with bulk move and delete to make restructuring
easier.
Fix to allow admin to change user subscriptions.
Educated Smart Text to handle typical email quoting style,
recognize mail headers ('<any-name>:') and signatures
(following '--' line) and be more selective about URLs
(only known URI schemes, no &s).
Use named submit buttons to simplify interface - includes a
workaround for older browsers.
Include In-Reply-To header line in outgoing email.
Feb 20, 1996 - Version 1.9B5.5
Fix editing of base articles to work for non-admin.
Also fix recognizing user as owner of base article.
Fix broken .htgroupmembers construction.
Make setup.pl work from parent directory,
e.g. .scripts/setup.pl.
Fix creation of nick-name when that is the only change
to personal info.
Always add user to group when "changing" user.
Removed another use of $hndocsURL for $hniconsURL.
Fix loss of date when moving.
Prevent people from directly running setup.pl from web.
Use absolute URL for action of setup forms.
When rebuilding passwords and groups, only rebuild passwords
if the group is the root level.
Only store the .htaccess file in the .scripts directory
when the group is the root level. (I need to call this
something other than "the root level".)
Allow relative URLs for the document bodies.
They are prevented from escaping the documents directory.
Support another "relative" URL that is already in use:
the absolute path relative to $hndocs.
Add 'None' as first relation if it is not already there.
Feb 15, 1996 - Version 1.9B5.4
Removed two more evals from setup-lib.pl.
Ensure that full URLs are reported in Email.
Fix writing of passwords for new users.
Fix mistaken Reply-To line in email.
Fix broken construction of .htgroupmembers.
Lower group line size to 1000, and fix how it is used.
Feb 12, 1996 - Version 1.9B5.3
Delete another $hndocsURL dependency.
Use -oeq by default on sendmail to silence the immediate
errors.
Get rid of evals, in email.pl, member-lib.pl, setup.pl, etc.
There is still one in every script, to catch errors, but
it seems to not be a problem.
Add new nicknames to group and password files.
New setup-short-form with only the most popular options.
New option to disable each of the security settings.
I havent really tried these, but some people want it.
Fix wrong author address in embedded responses.
Feb 8, 1996 - Version 1.9B5.2
Fix allowEmailUserID default.
Use 0 by default for CERN server.
Optionally authenticateInquiries of members.
Reduce dependence on SCRIPT_NAME since some servers
don't supply the right value. There are still some more
dependencies.
Now setup.pl always writes out a new hnrc, even when called
from command line.
Merged setupCustomizations with setDefaultValues.
Use author's address or $mail_from or $mail_to instead of
'HyperNews' for "From:" and "To:" headers of mail.
Remove use of $hndocsURL.
Work around Perl scoping bugs: Returning from nested control
structures loses list results sometimes, so dont do that.
Work around Perl eval bug: in setup.pl, don't do nested
fevals.
Work around NCSA httpd bug in group files: sort members by
userid size.
Jan 31, 1996 - Version 1.9B5.1
New member password fixes.
Perl 4 syntax error fixes.
Fix use of email address for non-members in response list.
Allow "./setup.pl".
Fix numerous notification and subscription problems.
Preview used email address of page you responded to.
requirePasswords and generatePassword didn't work.
Jan 28, 1996 - Version 1.9B5
Ported to CERN server, which required the next change.
Separate short user ID from email address. Old email
address IDs will still work, and will alias to new IDs.
Because email address is separate, now you can change it.
Any display of name or email will use the current values.
Moved setupCustomizations to setup-lib.pl.
Any value defined in hnrc is used instead of defaults.
Several changes to allow
you to share the .scripts directory more easily
across multiple HN installations each configured
differently, and allowing different groups of users.
Moved hnrc back up to the HyperNews directory.
Added $hnGroup so each installation has its own
group of users.
Added $hnbin == $hnlib with last component dropped.
So this is a logical parent rather than physical.
Added to Membership page display of privileges.
Added phone and address fields.
Added option to require passwords.
Added option to only email new passwords.
Fixed non-use of $mail_from and $mail_sender.
Added $hnEmailNotify as distinct from $hnEmail.
Fixed an infinite loop displaying three level deep response.
Fixed an infinite loop when embedding All. Same bug as above.
Fixed an infinite loop in thread code.
Fixed SECURED thread code.
Make thread code self-correcting for manual deletions.
Fixed display of forward pointer to moved responses.
Default outline depth is a per-article option.
(Still needs response page outline depth.)
Fixed display of relative URL response body.
Fixed html.pl to support BASE tag in response body.
New version of html-to-ascii, fixes infinite
loop with bad HTML, fixes incorrect whitespace handling,
and adds URL references to bottom of page.
New look and feel for Add Response.
Cleaned up icons, added threading icons. Note icon is used
by default.
Nov 22, 1995 - Version 1.9B4.2
Rearrange setup.pl to catch more errors at the top.
Perl 4 support: e.g. split up large text in setup-form.pl
$hniconstable is now in $hniconsDir.
Fix $hnmail typo.
Nov 15, 1995 - Version 1.9B4.1
Fix first name in rebuilt global group file.
Fix infinite loop in next-response after last response.
Learn where next and previous responses are for next time.
Allow relative URLs for base articles and responses.
Nov 7, 1995 - Version 1.9B4
Setup may be run from command line again.
Fixed rebuilding password file, and made it faster too.
Split the one big group of users into multiple small groups,
to get around problems with httpd.
Catch all errors and print to output - syntax errors
in the top level scripts are not caught, however.
Print correct HTML headers for all pages.
Added 'who can be affected' parameter to access restrictions.
This is hardcoded for each command for now.
Added per-article administrator support.
New commands: next-in-thread, next thread, next and
previous response.
New Embed and Outline Display Depth controls.
Abbreviated display of nested single responses.
edit-article lets you enter the body text, and reedit existing
articles.
Articles may have their own header and footer text.
"Smart Text" replaces "Paragraph Filled", and it tries to
be smarter. Let me know where it screws up.
It fills and wraps paragraphs, as for paragraph filled.
It uses PRE for paragraphs with same prefix on every line
or any indentation.
It anchorizes what looks like a URL.
Display of response number and date are configurable.
Sept 8, 1995 - Version 1.9B3.1
Fixed joining new member with or without new password.
Fixed to allow blank password.
Sept 7, 1995 - Version 1.9B3
Customization section added to create_hnrc_gbl.pl.
Fixed reset password bugs - wrong argument name.
Fixed rebuilding of password file. Also rebuild .htglobal.
Allow blank passwords - if you must.
Rebuild administrator list (.htAdmin) each time.
Fixed new, newer, newest icon references.
Cleaned up and centralized error reporting.
More error checking during writes.
Sept 5, 1995 - Version 1.9B2
Bug fixes:
Restructured, cleaned up setup.
Fixed chmod in setup.
Display created passwords on setup.
Add HyperNews.gif to distribution.
Fixed default icons directory URL.
Add administrators to .htglobal.
Recognize old date formats.
Aug 30, 1995 - Version 1.9b1
New form-based configuration process - checks consistency
when you submit.
Removed configuration dependence on script directory.
Fix security holes (don't ask, don't tell).
Fix duplicate password entries.
Administrator passwords cannot be reset.
Email recipients are hidden in Bcc.
Message-Ids are relative URLs.
Prevent deletion of base articles.
Check that copy destination exists.
Smaller icons.
Use Socket.pm for Perl 5.
Added "Paragraph Filled" mode as the default for text entry.
Added max display depth option, to limit depth of display
of response trees.
Numerous little things and clean ups.
July 3, 1995 - Version 1.8.1
Fixed deletion of base articles when adding a response
and when scripts are changed from .pl -> .cgi.
June 26, 1995 - Version 1.8
Put URL and Subject after Re's.
Added "HN-" for HyperNews header lines in email.
Email addresses are a bit more liberal, allowing "%".
Added support for deletion of responses and trees.
Added support for moving responses and trees.
Added option to email password to user.
Moved default directory for $hnpeople.
Use NCSA httpd security mechanism if available.
Added configurable security constraints on reading vs
deletion, etc.
Fix Immediate notification.
Added icon display to indicate relationships.
Added display of newness to response tree.
April 24, 1995 Version 1.7
Fixed adding new responses.
April 21, 1995 Version 1.6
Remove newlines from titles and other user supplied data.
Make HyperNews header lines part of email header lines.
Fixed locks some more.
Don't print html parse errors to log.
April 19, 1995 Version 1.5
Fixed email to subscribers.
Don't add author if already (un)subscribed.
Fixed check for no name.
April 17, 1995 Version 1.4
Fixed bad variable: $baseL
Made missing responses.html file not an error.
Changed names of some lock files, and cleaned up log.
Changed default file mode to 664, directory to 775.
Show the Body-URL if it is interesting.
Added optional security on article creation.
April 5, 1995 Version 1.3
Setext support added.
Preformatted -> PRE-formatted.
Added plain text option.
Added Next and Previous lines.
Interface to HyperNews uses "HyperNews | Respond | (Un)Subscribe"
format - normal anchors.
Added subscription on a per response basis, to receive
email notification of new responses.
Locking now used where needed.
Fixed problem of double quotes in titles.
Avoid use of url'get when response is local URL.
After submitting response, reload page that you started at.
December 21, 1994 Version 1.2
Fixed bugs involving hndocs.
Unify and fix creation of response lines.
Added list of ancestors.
December 16, 1994 Version 1.1
Added "embed" script to embed all responses recursively.
Removed HR under response headers, to make embedding cleaner.
Got rid of `cat`, `pwd`, `date`, and uses of csh (in globbing),
to ease installation in secure environments.
Removed email addresses from tree of responses. Each response
takes only one line, if it fits.
Allow scripts to be called via relative path names.
Added fixPerlPath script (From Bill Voss) to convert the path
at the top of perl files.
November 7, 1994 Version 1.0
Reorganized and renamed many things.
Made it require only standard CGI support. NCSA httpd 1.3 is no
longer required.
The header files for each document are named with a suffix of ",urc",
and they look like mail header lines.
Cleaned up to work with Perl 5.0. It should continue to work
with Perl 4.036, at least for now.
Client-side editing uses remote control now to display the posted
response, but that means it requires the equivalent of Mosaic's
remote control which is non-standard. Someday, CCI will be used.
October 7, 1994
Changed the previewer to save a temporory file on server side.
This is to avoid putting all the text of a response in a form field,
which is prone to error.
Changed the header lines again.
October 6, 1994
Moved all configuration to two files.
Added a preview mode.
Changed the display of articles and responses to remove
the mail/news-like header lines. Responses get a simplified header.
September 26, 1994
Fixed "Preformatted Text" bug that didn't preformat it.
Changed the user interface of the response form.
For the content of the response, different browsers use different
conventions regarding end of line and word wrapping. For MS Windows
browsers, convert CR/LF to just LF. For Mac browsers, convert CR into
LF. No solution to word wrapping yet.
August 30, 1994
Use newer version of html.pl which fixes quoting bug.
Replace \015 with \012 in content text, so it works better with
Mac Mosaic and anyone else with this problem.
Duplicate the Title in the body of a document.
August 22, 1994
Moved HyperNews articles to an NCSA server. Reorganized directories.
August 10, 1994
Ported to work with NCSA httpd 1.3
July 15, 1994
Allow HTML or Plain Text responses.
June 27, 1994
Remote, client-side editing of responses
now works. See end of responses section below.
June 21
Responses now show a parent link, called
"Up". Only new responses will have this link, however.
New responses will show the date.
A direct pointer to the contents URL is now provided.
I stopped displaying the HyperNews icon (escher-fish) on every
article. If I could display the header lines after the icon, the
vertical space would not be wasted.
You can now enter the content of a response as preformatted text
and it will be stored at the same site as the base article.
May 1994
The source is
now available, but with only minimal instructions for how to use it.
Ask me if you can't figure it out.
April 1994
You can now respond to responses, and the whole tree of responses is
shown under each article. The title can no longer contain general
HTML stuff, but there is a separate URL field.