SOUP

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SOUP
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   In the PC world people often talk about "offline" newsreaders.  These
are thingies that are combined reader/news transport monstrosities.
With built-in modem programs.  Yecchh!

   Of course, us Unix Weenie types of human beans use things like
`uucp' and, like, `nntpd' and set up proper news and mail transport
things like Ghod intended.  And then we just use normal newsreaders.

   However, it can sometimes be convenient to do something a that's a
bit easier on the brain if you have a very slow modem, and you're not
really that interested in doing things properly.

   A file format called SOUP has been developed for transporting news
and mail from servers to home machines and back again.  It can be a bit
fiddly.

  1. You log in on the server and create a SOUP packet.  You can either
     use a dedicated SOUP thingie, or you can use Gnus to create the
     packet with the `O s' command.

  2. You transfer the packet home.  Rail, boat, car or modem will do
     fine.

  3. You put the packet in your home directory.

  4. You fire up Gnus using the `nnsoup' backend as the native server.

  5. You read articles and mail and answer and followup to the things
     you want.

  6. You do the `G s r' command to pack these replies into a SOUP
     packet.

  7. You transfer this packet to the server.

  8. You use Gnus to mail this packet out with the `G s s' command.

  9. You then repeat until you die.


   So you basically have a bipartite system--you use `nnsoup' for
reading and Gnus for packing/sending these SOUP packets.
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