Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!think!ames!haven!uvaarpa!virginia!uvacs!rwl From: rwl@uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU (Ray Lubinsky) Newsgroups: comp.sources.d Subject: Re: vn verses vnews Message-ID: <2743@uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU> Date: 10 Oct 88 14:38:41 GMT References: <632@convex.UUCP> Organization: U.Va. CS in Charlottesville VA Lines: 28 In article <632@convex.UUCP>, tchrist@convex.UUCP (Tom Christiansen) writes: > > I don't understand what's "yucky" about rn. I find its flexibility > highly desirable. Could someone explain what's "yucky" about it? > I ask because we've just switched our users from notes (choke, barf) > to news using rn, and most of the non-hacker types do nothing but > piss and moan about it. Everytime I track down their specific gripes, > it's a case of RTFM. What he means is that rn isn't a full-screen program. Vnews tries to stick to a display method where parts of the screen are dedicated to a particular function; e.g., you always know where to look for the name of the news group you're reading, you always know where you will be prompted for the name of the file in which to save the article. Rn is not full-screen oriented; it would be just as happy if you were on a DECwriter and assumes no more. It has lots of functionality (I always like Larry Wall's stuff), but I never would use most of it any way -- I just want an interface that doesn't keep my eyes jumping around the screen looking for things. For one, I'd love to see a news-reading offspring of vn and vnews. -- | Ray Lubinsky, UUCP: ...!uunet!virginia!uvacs!rwl | | Department of BITNET: rwl8y@virginia | | Computer Science, CSNET: rwl@cs.virginia.edu -OR- | | University of Virginia rwl%uvacs@uvaarpa.virginia.edu |