Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!kuhub.cc.ukans.edu!unocss!fritz
From: fritz@unocss.UUCP (Tim Russell)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: Why doesn't someone create and easy to use rn?
Message-ID: <2022@unocss.UUCP>
Date: 7 Oct 89 12:46:10 GMT
References: <1083@venus.misemi>
Distribution: na
Organization: U. of Nebraska at Omaha
Lines: 32

chiprout@venus.misemi ( test) writes:

|Is there no better alternative to rn?  Seeing that network news is so
|vital to communication, why doesn't some good programmer out there
|create a news interface that is easy to use, easy to understand (with --
|God forgive me -- a good help facility) and clear instructions.  man rn is
|almost useless because you have to understand the term that are used
|before you read it.

    Have you looked at the other readers available?  There are several.
Until a few months ago I, along with 99% of the people on this machine,
used "vn" and was very happy with it.  It's easy to use and makes reading
much faster than on rn, IMHO.  It's not a bad reader at all.

    Now I use "nn".  It's even faster, and has an auto-kill/auto-select
file.  Vn lacks both and rn lacks the auto-select feature.  The people that
I have shown nn to seemed to find it easy enough, but it's incredibly
powerful and full-featured if one takes the time to read the man page, which
I think is pretty well-written.

    If you run Gnu Emacs, there are several readers available for it too.

|Am I alone in my feelings?

    Definitely not!  I think rn stinks too!

    So look around!  There are better alternatives.

-- 
Tim Russell   Univ. Of Nebr. at Omaha   russell@{zeus.unl.edu | unoma1.bitnet}
"I'm against any law that I wouldn't break if I could get away with it."
                                             -- A. Whitney Brown, SNL