Say I want to find the newsgroup with bionet in its title and the
maximal number of posts. What is a way to do this in C#, Python or
Visual Basic? Is there an API for Usenet?

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In comp.misc, Lane W <cactus_DAC@yahoo.com> wrote:

Say I want to find the newsgroup with bionet in its title and the
maximal number of posts. What is a way to do this in C#, Python or
Visual Basic? Is there an API for Usenet?

RFC1036 would be a good place to start.

On the command line, I use "nntplist -x \*bionet\*" to find groups
matching "bionet", then would have to do something to calculate the
difference between lowwater post and highwater.

Elijah
------
other approaches are available

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:

In comp.misc, Lane W <cactus_DAC@yahoo.com> wrote:

Say I want to find the newsgroup with bionet in its title and the
maximal number of posts. What is a way to do this in C#, Python or
Visual Basic? Is there an API for Usenet?

RFC1036 would be a good place to start.

On the command line, I use "nntplist -x \*bionet\*" to find groups
matching "bionet", then would have to do something to calculate the difference between lowwater post and highwater.

Updated RFC: https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6048/


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In article <117hlek$1ni59$1@dont-email.me>,
Lane W <cactus_DAC@yahoo.com> wrote:

Say I want to find the newsgroup with bionet in its title and the
maximal number of posts. What is a way to do this in C#, Python or
Visual Basic? Is there an API for Usenet?

Do you want to query the nntp server or just grep your own .newsrc?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Scott Dorsey wrote:

In article <117hlek$1ni59$1@dont-email.me>,
Lane W <cactus_DAC@yahoo.com> wrote:

Say I want to find the newsgroup with bionet in its title and the
maximal number of posts. What is a way to do this in C#, Python or
Visual Basic? Is there an API for Usenet?

Do you want to query the nntp server or just grep your own .newsrc?
--scott

I would rather query the nntp server because there are approximately 60 newsgroups that contain bionet. Perhaps in this case subscription could
be the faster way, but I'd also like to know in general, such as in the
case this could be far more than 60 newsgroups.

Probably there's a better way than going through and subscribing by
ticking each newsgroup?

But at least I have one answer should I be unable to find another way.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Lane W <cactus_DAC@yahoo.com> wrote:

Scott Dorsey wrote:

In article <117hlek$1ni59$1@dont-email.me>,
Lane W <cactus_DAC@yahoo.com> wrote:

Say I want to find the newsgroup with bionet in its title and the
maximal number of posts. What is a way to do this in C#, Python or
Visual Basic? Is there an API for Usenet?

Do you want to query the nntp server or just grep your own .newsrc?

I would rather query the nntp server because there are approximately 60 >newsgroups that contain bionet. Perhaps in this case subscription could
be the faster way, but I'd also like to know in general, such as in the
case this could be far more than 60 newsgroups.

Then do this:

nntplist -x \*bionet\* | awk -F\ '{print $1 " " $2-$3}'

When I run this on Panix, I see the vast majority of these groups contain
558 messages, which makes me think they hit a maximum at some point somewhere. (Of those 558 messages, not all of them may be left on the server either,
but the message numbers indicate they were there at some point.)

awk is our friend.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)