Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ssbell!mcmi!amperif!unocss!fritz
From: fritz@unocss.UUCP (Tim Russell)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Review of NN, a Usenet news reader
Keywords: rn, .newsrc, b&d
Message-ID: <1050@unocss.UUCP>
Date: 5 Jul 89 19:03:34 GMT
References: <1836@papaya.bbn.com> <1150@sequent.cs.qmc.ac.uk>
Organization: U. of Nebraska at Omaha
Lines: 71

flash@cs.qmc.ac.uk (Flash Sheridan) writes:

>If you've already used rn seriously, don't bother with nn.

Could be so, quite probably is.  I don't use rn, and never have. Ick.
However, if you've been using vn, get thee to nn, go!  It's the next
logical step up from vn.

>Killing is much more sophisticated than rn's, but doesn't work until it's
>too late:  if half the articles in unix.wizards are on the Yiddish word for
>"belch", you can make all such articles disappear.  The next time you read
>news, _not_ this time.  I sometime quit & restart [slow; it's fast except
>on startup], to simulate rn's behavior.  Auto-selection likewise.  Other
>than that, it's beautiful.

You must have a slow machine - on our Sequent Balance 8000, nn is almost
blindingly fast, and auto-selection has almost no penalty that I can notice.
Hitting '+' to do autoselect on six or seven pages of a group is almost
instantaneous.

>Normal group selction is clumsy; there's no way to find out which groups
>have unread news, except by finding out *all* groups which have unread
>news.  You can page through groups, getting a whole slow screenful
>summarizing each; nn deliberately ignores the command you gave it a third of
>the way through to skip this group and go to the next, which means you have
>to stare at a group you don't feel like reading to see when it stops
>displaying and will listen to the command you just gave it and now have to
>give it again.

This is indeed a limitation for some people. Not me.  Kim Storm has already
said, on nn-info, that a group selection menu is at the top of the list of
additions.

I like the method of reading that nn uses: I can see all subjects and
pick from the ones that look interesting.  RN drives me nuts showing me
three lines for each article whether I care about the subject or not, and
no overview.  NN also sorts by subject.

>	Its knowledge of headers is hard-coded, and wrong.  It doesn't even
>know about the "Summary:" field; this means you can't see it, _ever_; much
>less interesting non-standard ones [in England we have a "Kenneth-Baker:"
>field (he's the government agent in charge of destroying higher education.)]

Quite right, nn is lacking in this area if you care about such things.

>It really, truly, does save
>you oodles of time in news-reading.  Pity that the people who should save
>time reading news are already using rn, and he's deliberately decided to
>make it difficult for them to change.

It certainly is a pity!  So many are using rn not knowing that there are
so many other, better readers available.

Maybe auto-selection doesn't work on your machine, but it's great on
mine..  Quite handy.

>	But I think every site should have it; tell people who have never
>read netnews before to use it.  Making it is straightforward; even *I* could
>do it, and seem to have been the first ever to Make it on a Sequent: there
>were two problems, one probably my fault, one described in the PROBLEMS file.

Oops!  You're on a Sequent too!  Well, there go the speed arguments.. :-)
What time did you build yours?  Let's see who's first!

Anyway, people who've been using vn and liking it will LOVE nn!

-- 
---------------------------------+--------------------------------------------
 Tim Russell, Computer Operator  | Internet: russell@zeus.unl.edu
 Campus Computing                | Bitnet:   russell@unoma1
 University of Nebraska at Omaha | UUCP:     uunet!zeus.unl.edu!russell