Yarrow is a project mainly written in Python, based on the GPL-2.0 license.
Yarrow is a web client for the Cambridge RGTP bulletin board protocol.
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Yarrow: the manual
Contents
1. [1]Introduction
2. [2]Getting started as a user
1. [3]Basics
2. [4]GROGGS
3. [5]A glossary
4. [6]Finding out more
3. [7]Getting started as an administrator
1. [8]Installing yarrow
2. [9]Installing your own RGTP servers
4. [10]The future
5. [11]CreditsIntroduction
This is the manual for yarrow. Yarrow lets you read RGTP bulletin boards, such as [12]GROGGS at Cambridge University, using a web browser.
Some other pages worth looking at: [13]screen shots, [14]contact information, and [15]links to other RGTP sites.
Getting started as a user
2.1. Basics
Yarrow is most commonly used with GROGGS, so I'll use that as an example here. The procedure is fairly similar for any RGTP board, though. You'll also need a copy of yarrow to play with; if you don't have one locally, you can use the example one at [16]http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/gossip. There's also [17]a copy running inside the University Data Network, but that may not always be running the most recent version of the program. If you want to set up a copy on your own computer, skip ahead to the section "Getting started as an administrator".
Firstly, it's useful to set up a yarrow account, so that all state (such as whether or not you've read a particular item) can be held on the yarrow server. It's not necessary to set one up; if you go to [18]the GROGGS index without having logged in, for example, you can simply click the "visitor" button to read the whole of GROGGS. (You might like to try doing that now for a bit.) However, you'll need an account if you want to post, so let's set one up: click "log in" on the right-hand menu, and then "get a new account". Enter your email address, which yarrow uses to identify you, and press OK.
While you're waiting for the confirmation email from the server, let's discuss how RGTP works. An RGTP board consists of several discussion threads, called items. Any user with posting access can create new items, or add replies to the end of an item. Items have a fixed maximum size, so when one gets too long, you have to start another, with a name more pertinent to whatever the discussion's about now (this helps minimise the distance between subject lines and discussion topics that's so common on Usenet). The system tracks when a new item is a continuation of an old one, so it's possible to follow a long discussion through-- this is known as a thread.
You should have your email from the server by now. Click the "change your password" link, and fill in the address you used, the password you were given, and two copies of a new password. Once you've clicked OK, you'll be logged into yarrow.
2.2. GROGGS
Click the "gossip" link in this page (or just go back to [19]the main yarrow page) and you'll be presented with a list of servers. We want to read GROGGS, so click on the "groggs" link in the left-hand column.
You're now looking at [20]the index of items on GROGGS-- well, the most recent of them: you can page back all the way to 1995, when GROGGS took its current form. Each item shows the date it was most recently added to (with the newer ones towards the top), the number ("#") of replies to that item, the name of the user who most recently added to it, and the subject. The items in bold, which will be all of them at present, are items which contain replies you haven't read; those in italics are full items, which will have been continued further up the index.
Click any of the subject lines to read that item and all the replies. Each reply is preceded by a block giving the user's email address, and the date of posting, on the right. On the left is the user's grogname: a fanciful, possibly descriptive, piece of text which is associated with that particular user. If you were logged in as a regular user, at the bottom of the page there'd be [21]a box to add your own reply.
2.3. A glossary
Spend a little time exploring GROGGS now. Here's some information to help you explore it.
hup Most RGTP clients list the index with the items that have most recently been added to towards the top. Most groggers only read the top few items in the index. So if you feel an item deserves more discussion, you can append a reply saying "hup", which will bring it to the top of the index. You can theoretically hup any item (unless it's been continued), but doing so with items more than a few years old is considered odd.
grogvote an annual contest to nominate groggers in various categories. (The categories are also nominated by the users, but "Star of GROGGS" and "Sage of GROGGS" are traditional.) The results are read out every year at the [22]GROGGS garden party, which happens during Cambridge May Week.
[23]ucam.chat a newsgroup internal to Cambridge University. In recent years, it has taken a lot of the traffic (and traditions) which once were part of GROGGS.
grogger; grogging a user of GROGGS; to use GROGGS
GREED An important RGTP-reading program; it runs under Emacs. See [24]the GREED home page for more information.
Infinity Questions (IQ) A very long-running game on GROGGS. One user picks a subject and the others have to ask "yes/no" questions to work out what it is. Rounds can sometimes last months. New players should be warned that the definition of "subject" is rather looser than in many similar games: the subjects of previous rounds have included: the autonomic nervous system; honesty; [25]PuTTY; cork (the substance); Cambridge, Massachusetts; the hosts and routers of the global Internet; Leo Blair; the London Eye; a backup tape for chiark.greenend.org.uk; and the White House's red encrypted telephone to the Kremlin.
ITWSBT I think we should be told
YA(x)AICMFP You are (x) and I claim my five pounds
TIOSSUOTW(x)TIWPAO (and variants) [26]This is obviously some strange usage of the word (x) that I wasn't previously aware of
SWITCH NOBOYDIE / SNB / DoeS aNyBody... [27]Chris Boyd (cb113) was a user of GROGGS who would always answer questions of the form "Does anyone know the way to Arbury?" with "Yes". To work around this, people began writing SWITCH NOBOYDIE before such questions, which soon became SNB. It's also often mixed into the question itself: "DoeS aNyBody know the way to Arbury?"
spqr1 any Cambridge person (since this is the general form of a Cambridge user id)
2.4. Finding out more
If, now you've looked around, you'd like to participate in GROGGS, all you need to do is register for a GROGGS account. The link to do this is given on [28]the login page, but you can go there directly if you'd rather: [29]http://rgtp.thurman.org.uk/gossip/groggs/newbie. Once you've filled that in, you'll get email back explaining what to do next.
If you find any problems, email the GROGGS editors; their address always appears in the [30]message of the day.
Getting started as an administrator
(This section is a little more sketchy than I'd like. Any help would be appreciated.)
3.1. Installing yarrow
There isn't (yet) any .deb or .rpm packaged version of yarrow, though it's on the drawing board. Instead, you'll need to [31]download the tarballs and install things yourself.
You'll need a fairly recent version of [32]Python-- 2.1 should be good enough-- and (obviously) a working web server.
You'll also need the Python Distutils installed. Many versions of Python have them installed already; I recommend, when you're following the instructions here, that you assume yours does until you find it doesn't. If yours turns out not to have them, you can find them in the Debian package [33]python2.1-dev (or [34]python2.2-dev, depending on the version of Python you're using; nothing's stopping you installing both). RPM users can [35]look on rpmfind. And everyone can get them from [36]the Python website.
Unpack the tarball:
tar xvzf yarrow-1.2.0.tar.gzand move into the directory it created:
cd yarrow-1.2.0Now, as root, run
make installIf it all worked, then
[37]http://localhost/cgi-bin/yarrow.cgishould be the address of a new and working RGTP server!
Go ahead and test it by clicking on the entry for GROGGS in the menu, and then the "Yes, I'm just visiting" button. The page should take a good while to appear the first time, because yarrow has to download the whole index for the past seven years or so-- there's about half a megabyte. Fortunately, this only happens the first time you read from any server: after that, it's all cached.
Some odds and ends:
3.2. Installing your own RGTP servers
This is rather more difficult. There are, as far as I know, two RGTP server codebases in the world. One is the one [39]GROGGS runs on, which has never been officially released. The other is one I'm writing, called [40]spurge; it's been used effectively in the past, but it's in no way stable enough for a production environment. I hope that in the future it will be possible to use spurge to run a reliable RGTP server; in the meantime, you're welcome to download it and try it out. Offers of help and messages of encouragement are welcomed.
The future
This project has largely met its original goals: I learned a good deal both about Python and about web applications, it was both challenging and fun to write, and it got a good number of people interested once more in GROGGS. It also sparked the imagination of others, bringing forth other projects in their own right (notably [41]Vendepacx). Now that all this is done, my hopes for its future are:
Credits
[42]John Stark (jas11) created GROGGS. [43]Ian Jackson (iwj10) created RGTP. The interface of yarrow was largely modelled after [44]LiveJournal, which was created by [45]Brad Fitzpatrick. The following people, in alphabetical order, have given help, advice or moral support during the growth of yarrow: [46]Peter Colledge, [47]Natalie Currie, [48]Martin Hardcastle, [49]Michelle Hart, [50]Neil Roques, [51]Firinel Taranen, [52]Simon Tatham. Thanks to all of you. There are probably more people I've left out; if one of them's you, please do tell me.
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