Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!mit-eddie!media-lab!simsong
From: simsong@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Simson L. Garfinkel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: news reader --- more
Message-ID: <4198@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Date: 29 Nov 90 23:30:49 GMT
Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 40

some people sent me e-mail asking, "why write another news reader, if there
already is one?"  

here's my response:

I've seen William Shipley's News reader.  In fact, I have the source code.

Mine will be a little better for a few reasons:

1.	It will *post*.

2.	It will be configurable.

3.	It will automatically build hypertext links between articles.

4.	It will work with multiple news services: local news, Usenet news, 
	New York Times,	Thinking Machine's Wide Area Information System.  
	In fact, you'll be able to plug	in your own protocols.

5.	Instead of taking the paradigm that you want to view *all of the news*,
	it takes the paradigm that you have a certain amount of time each 
	day that you can spend on reading netnews, and it tries to show you 
	the best articles to spend your time on.

6.	In addition to reading news interactively, it will be able to typeset 
	a "newspaper" with the articles that you think are important.

7.	There will also be a connection machine interface, if you happen to 
	have one of those.

As I get parts of this news reader working, I'll release it, always
with full source-code.  Any suggestions for improvements will be
happily taken, although not always implemented!

I've posted this reply to the newsgroup because I think that other
people might be interested and/or have suggestions...


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So what's the word.  Can I post rich text?