#!/usr/bin/perl 
# perl qq2.pl

##minimal nntp client


use strict;
use warnings;
use Net::NNTP ();

use constant NUMBER_OF_ARTICLES    => 2;
use constant GROUP_NAME        => 'comp.lang.perl.misc';
use constant SERVER_NAME    => 'news.individual.net';
use constant NNTP_DEBUG        => 0;

my $nntp = Net::NNTP->new(SERVER_NAME, 'Debug' => NNTP_DEBUG) or die;
my $USER = 'merrilljensen';
my $PASS = 'quoatohngipu';

$nntp->authinfo($USER,$PASS) or die $!;


my($article_count, $first_article, $last_article) = $nntp->group(GROUP_NAME) or die;


# Which XOVER fields contain Subject: and From:?
my $count = 0;
my %xover_fmt = map( ($_, $count++), @{ $nntp->overview_fmt or die} );
die unless exists $xover_fmt{'Subject:'};
my $subject_offset = $xover_fmt{'Subject:'};
my $from_offset = $xover_fmt{'From:'};

my(@xover, $start_article);
RETRIEVE: while ($#xover+1 < NUMBER_OF_ARTICLES and $last_article >= $first_article) {

    # How many articles do we need?  Stop retrieving if we have enough
    my $articles_required = NUMBER_OF_ARTICLES - ($#xover+1) or last RETRIEVE;


    # Fetch overview information for the articles
    $start_article = $last_article - ($articles_required-1);
    $start_article = $start_article > $first_article ? $start_article : $first_article;

    my $xover_query = $start_article == $last_article ?
    $start_article :
    [$start_article, $last_article];
    my $xover_ref = $nntp->xover($xover_query) or die;

    # Store headers for the articles we've retrieved
    foreach (sort {$b <=> $a} keys %$xover_ref) {
        push @xover, $xover_ref->{$_};
    }
} continue {
    # Move the pointer forward to fetch previous articles
    $last_article = $start_article - 1;
}

print $nntp->body;

__END__