From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxt!mhuxj!mhuxa!houxm!houxz!hocda!tjt
Newsgroups: net.misc
Title: net.misc
Article-I.D.: hocda.254
Posted: Wed Apr 27 20:18:20 1983
Received: Thu Apr 28 04:47:54 1983

Just wanted to add my 2 cents to the recent praise of PLATO:

    I spent 5.5 years at U of Illinois enjoying the experience of PLATO,
and although UNIX is by far the better software development system, there is
almost no comparison between the user interface of PLATO and almost anything
else I have seen in 5 years at Bell Labs.  Every time I think of it, I wonder
why the PLATO system never caught on elsewhere.  Then again, the need for
a massive CDC machine with several PPU's (Peripheral Processing Units) might
present an obstacle for most potential users.  I would be IMMENSELY interested
in any information regarding the current situation and future fate of PLATO.

    Regarding the notesfiles system, the biggest difference on PLATO
was that you had to remember the name of each and every notesfile you wanted
to peruse, although I'm sure that's long since been fixed.  HOWEVER, being
fairly tolerant, I have not been particularly put off by the obvious
deficiencies in the 'readnews' interface.  I instead revel in the much
greater (and more interesting) community of people who interact with
USENET (although I always call it netnews).  I'm suprised I haven't
heard of a link between PLATO notesfiles and USENET.  Is anything like
that in the works?

USENET is communication personified.  (gee, that might be a nice slogan)

                            ===Tim Thompson===BTL/Holmdel===hocda!tjt===