This is a short introduction into Cat and In2Cat written by Ekkehard Flessa for one user, so it might be a bit special in some places.

  1. Get Cat from  the download section. Currently version 5.36, archive name cat536.zip.
  2. Get in2cat , version 2.04 or higher
  3. Unpack cat536.zip to the harddisk (folder cat536 will be created automatically)
  4. Unpack i2c204 to the harddisk (folder will again be created)
  5. Launch cat536\install.prg. If the menu is in german, and you happen to want to have it in english, terminate the program and place  a file "cat_lang.dat" into that folder, containing just the two chars "en". Start install again.
  6. Select File/install Cat
  7. Chose "new" (default setting)
  8. Install path: keep setting (folder cat536)
  9. Select outfile name (just enter "outfile.txt"). File will later be created by in2cat.
  10. Select terminal, chose i2c204\in2cat.gtp
  11. Installation of Cat is almost complete! Leave install program now and proceed with configuration.
  12. Launch \cat523\cat.prg
  13. There will come two alerts telling you to give Cat some more information. Do so now:
  14. Fill in your mail adress and real name in the "miscellaneous settings" window. This dialog may be reached with  options/general... later, but should already be open now. Leave dialog with "OK" and chose options/save options from  the menu. (note: if there are problems entering your username/name, enter as many chars as possible and edit the file database\catuser.inf later)
  15. In the "paths and commands" window, attachm.path is already set, leave it as it is. This dialog is options/configuration...
  16. Press the button "command line". This will launch in2cat to make some settings there.
  17. Zugangssoftware/chose stack: Select STiK/STinG button (and have GlueSTiK installed, of course :-), or any other of the stacks listed.  In case of MagiC-PC, install the in2cat.dll into MagiC-PC's "MPS" subdirectory in order to directly access the host system's stack.
  18. Größenlimit/size limit: for mails that exceed that size limit, in2cat will ask you prior to download what to do with them (view header, download or delete on server)
  19. Mess-ID for news: [ ] create yourself (ID selber erzeugen). If you check this box, in2cat will create it's own message-IDs for news messages. If not, it will rely on the newsserver to create these IDs.
  20. FQDN: just enter your e-mail adress there
  21. chose [Weiter] (continue) with the mouse, for me keyboard won't work here.
  22. Einwahlmodus/dial in mode: Select "Standleitung" (this is for MagiCNet and MiNT-Net, as there's no way for in2cat to ask  pppd-gem to dial in. So just activate your internet connection before checking/sending mail. in2cat believes it's a permanent link).
  23. Zugangsdaten/access data: leave empty. [Weiter]
  24. Settings for various protocols
    1. POP3: enter pop3 server, username and password
    2. SMTP: enter smtp server, and leave username and password empty. If username was set, SMTP-AUTH would be used, otherwise SMTP-after-POP (the usual way)
    3. NNTP: enter news server, and name and password as required
  25. [Beenden] (finish), and you're almost done.
  26. Confirm the fileselector with "param.i2c" in the i2c204 folder.
  27. Select "save cat.inf" in the paths&commands window
  28. Close that window
  29. chose options/save options from the menu
  30. READY! Cat is now ready for use.

Activate your internet connection, and then chose "swap/execute terminal program" from the menu. This will create the file  "infile.txt", which contains commands for in2cat and new mail/news messages to be sent (if any). Then in2cat will be launched.  It will check mail, send mail (if any), and then take some time downloading the newsgroups list from the server. After in2cat  has finished, let Cat import the newly created file "outfile.txt", which contains all received data. Cat will move this information  into some files inside the database folder. Now you can chose newsgroups to read from the "swap" menu, write new mails  with "F10" or new news with "F9", and of course read mail/news with "F1" through "F4".

Cat is always in thread mode, so if a message with thread information is displayed, you can navigate with the keypad through  the whole thread. "4" and "6" are the neighbours to the left and right (same level), "8" is the commented message and "2"  selects the first message that is a comment to the currently displayed one. With the little "hand" icon in the top left of the  window, you will get a popup menu which lets you comment on or answer a message. Cat will _not_ quote automatically.  Instead, mark the block of text you would like to comment, and then press alt-q in the edit window with the new message. This will insert that block as quote  (not from the clipboard, just the currently marked block).

Well, just play around a little bit with Cat, and you will notice it's a really powerfull and (hopefully) also rather stable tool.

Some more hints:

  • You cannot move mails/news to other folders (yet). You may just set the flags for "filtered" or "delete" (and some more).
  • Cat itself has no delete feature. Instead, terminate Cat and launch CatPutz, or, as of Cat 5.36, start it from the menu. CatPutz is a separate program (mainly due to  historical and size reasons) and will allow you to delete mails as well as messages from groups, and also delete entire groups from the local database.
  • Cat is an offline Mail/Newsreader!
  • Text effects for _underlined_, /italic/, #light# and *bold* will be displayed insted of the ASCII _/#* marks.
  • Cat has got a little Spam filtering tool. Don't ask me about it.
  • Cat is capable of moving mailing list messages into individual (local) newsgroups. Once set, mailinglist may be used like any other newsgroups in Cat.
  • You can also edit normal ASCII files with the built-in editor.
  • New messages are always stored on the harddisk, and may be altered at wish as often as necessary. They may be set to "hold back" if they are not yet finished in order to send them at a later date.
  • The german documentation isn't current either, so updating and translating it might take some time :-( This is no longer the case for the internal help, though.
  • The main functions of Cat should be self-explanatory, anyway :-)
  • Mails/News may be set to be resubmitted (Enter date as 01.06.2004 for june the 1st. European date format only). Upon program start, Cat will offer to show you these messages once the date has come.
  • In the message editor, change between edit and preview mode with the small pancil or eye icons, respectively. Save messages only from the "edit" mode (pencil visible).
  • The "α (alpha)" icon will pop up a box with special chars. Select one with the mouse.
  • The "i" Icon (little clip) will allow you to add/manipulate attachments.
  • Messages may be read with the "space" key.  If the line "SpacePaging             := TRUE;" is present in  database\catuser.inf, it will first scroll down large messages, and then display the next unread.
  • in2cat comes with a special windows dll that enables it to use the windows stack if run with MagiC-PC.


Now, that's enough for today. I could write on for hours...

I wish you much fun and success with Cat :-)


With best regards
Ekkehard