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From: ria@PacBell.COM (Richard I Anderson)
Newsgroups: news.software.notes
Subject: Re: Latest Version of Notes?
Message-ID: <1645@pbhyg.PacBell.COM>
Date: 30 Mar 89 21:24:16 GMT
References: <5025@cbnews.ATT.COM> <18218@gatech.edu> <421@texsun.Central.Sun.COM>
Reply-To: ria@PacBell.COM (Richard I Anderson)
Distribution: na
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Lines: 37

In article <421@texsun.Central.Sun.COM> jthomp@texsun.Central.Sun.COM (Jim Thompson  Sun Dallas IR) writes:
>In article <18218@gatech.edu> shilling@pinto.UUCP (John Shilling) writes:
>>Rumor has it that there are some folks at HP doing work with
>>notesfiles. They have done a lot of "newsifying" to the code to make
>>it a better usenet citizen.  Other than that I don't think that there
>>is anyone updating/enhancing it (Ray has long since graduated).
>
>Rich Salz (rsalz@pineapple.bbn.com) has also done quite a bit of work
>on 'notes'.  The HP guys are doing some work as well.  Whilst at
>Convex, we did some work to support an internal version that was used
>to record revisions control information, amoung other things.
>
>Private conversations with Ray tend to make me belive that at this
>point, even Ray would like a notes-like interface to news.  If only to
>avoid the notes<->news gateway issues.  I understand that Larry Wall's
>as-yet-unreleased version of 'rn' will support such 'alternative'
>interfaces.  (That is a rumor, 2nd hand..)
>

A couple of years or so ago, I revised the notesfile user interface to reduce
the number of difficulties users would encounter while using a notesfile.
Although I considered the original notesfile user interface superior to that
of rn - particularly for users with little experience with UNIX (which
describes the population for which my revision was intended and which
continues to use notesfiles quite extensively), users benefited from several
screen additions/revisions, command revisions/eliminations, etc.  More changes
were needed than were made, but ...

Sorry, but I can't distribute the modified code.  However, I will entertain
questions about the nature of the revisions I made (just don't expect a rapid
response - I'm VERY busy and its been a long time since I did this work).

R. I. Anderson
Human Factors Consultant
Pacific Bell
2600 Camino Ramon, Room 2E850                     (415)823-3715
San Ramon, CA 94583                           ria@pbhyg.PacBell.COM