Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!bloom-beacon!ambar From: ambar@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Jean Marie Diaz) Newsgroups: news.software.b Subject: Re: Review of NN, a Usenet news reader Message-ID: Date: 29 Jul 89 04:28:57 GMT References: <1836@papaya.bbn.com> <1150@sequent.cs.qmc.ac.uk> <1050@unocss.UUCP> <402@laas.laas.fr> <2794@mace.cc.purdue.edu> <404@laas.laas.fr> <2803@mace.cc.purdue.edu> Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU Organization: Madhouse International Technologies Lines: 44 In-reply-to: asd@mace.cc.purdue.edu's message of 27 Jul 89 22:14:28 GMT From: asd@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Kareth) Date: 27 Jul 89 22:14:28 GMT But only one .newsrc can only apply to one machine right? The numbers in it aren't transferable around machines are they? (Neither are nn's ither) Why would you need to read news on all the different machines? .newsrc's are certainly transportable among various machines -- if all those machines are speaking to a given nntp server. I've got a dozen plus accounts on different machines, and only read from one. I only use one newsreader (nn now) so I don't need to ever deal with rn or all the others. Isn't that the way most people will work? Use one newsreader only? If I used rn, why use readnews? or vnews, gnews, etc. Maybe there are some people who do do that. But I don't see a exactly why nn needs to use a .newsrc format unless you are specifically going to be using both nn and rn/vnews/etc. which would seem odd to me. In general -- and this isn't meant as an insult -- you seem to have a very limited view of what people do with netnews. I use GNUS for most of my netnews reading; rn, when dialed in at 1200 baud (or on overloaded systems where using Emacs is rude at best), and vnews when debugging TMNN :-) Different newsreaders are "best" at different tasks, so the experienced user will swap around, as seems best to her/him. GNUS would seem to set a good example for nn to follow -- it keeps a .newsrc.el file around, which is its preferred format of the .newsrc file, AND it keeps the .newsrc file up to date, so that I can use it with other readers! (This was my main reason for switching from Gnews to GNUS, BTW.) Why couldn't nn maintain and use a .newsrc.nn file, updating the .newsrc file upon exit? It would seem to be a solution that keeps everyone happy. And no, I haven't put up nn yet. Not only does its nntp support not compile out-of-the-box (yes, this is patchlevel 4), but the fact that it doesn't write completely compatible .newsrc files means that *I* won't be installing it anytime soon... I have too many naive users who would get themselves into a pickle and want me to get them out. AMBAR ambar@bloom-beacon.mit.edu {mit-eddie,uunet}!bloom-beacon!ambar