Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!gatech!ugacs!hal
From: hal@ugacs.UUCP (Hal N. Brooks)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Digests (was: the return of comp.dcom.telecom ??)
Summary: vn, the news reader with but one advantage
Keywords: vn, Visual news, Digest moderators, please read
Message-ID: <461@ugacs.UUCP>
Date: 1 Aug 88 10:35:11 GMT
References: <440@vector.UUCP> <22336@tis.llnl.gov> <34248@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Reply-To: hal@ugacs.UUCP (Hal N. Brooks)
Organization: Univ. of GA, CS Dept.
Lines: 28


>>Arrrgh!  Please don't gateway TELECOM in digested form.  Digests are
>>not amenable to newsreading software (yes, you can deal with them with
>>readnews or rn, but it ain't fun).  If TELECOM is to be gatewayed, it
>
>I agree that individual messages are the best way to go.  Failing this,
>digest moderators should at least flag each new article with a Subject:
>line.  With a newsreader like rn, you can then skip ahead to each new
>article with Ctrl-G.
>
>Digests without Subject: lines (like the revived Computers and Society
>digest over on cop.society) take more work to go through, and many
>readers simply will not take the time to manually search through the
>digest for relevant articles.

Though not my news reader of choice, the little used vn (NOT vnews!)
handles properly packaged digests better than any I've ever seen. 
It allows you to unpack digests, see all of the subject lines on a
primitive menu, and then read an individual entry as if it's an
article unto itself.

A quick check indicates that comp.sys.mac.digest, comp.ibm.pc.digest,
and comp.sys.sun (Sun-Spots) digests are all being properly packaged,
subject lines and all.

As best I can figure, the "digest" in comp.ai.digest just indicates that
the articles contain food for thought.  :-)

-hal  {backbone!}gatech!ugacs!hal