Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!shadooby!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!skrenta
From: skrenta@eecs.nwu.edu (Richard Skrenta)
Newsgroups: news.software.notes
Subject: Re: Re: Latest Version of Notes?
Message-ID: <5370002@eecs.nwu.edu>
Date: 4 Apr 89 04:46:04 GMT
References: <1645@pbhyg.PacBell.COM>
Organization: Northwestern U, Evanston IL, USA
Lines: 30

We're running Notes here at Northwestern.  It was my first introduction to
Usenet, and I was surprised to learn that everyone didn't use it :-)
I tried other newsreaders, but they seemed to operate pretty one-dimensionally,
and I felt like I was 'blind' in a group without the Notes index page.

(This isn't a flame against rn and such.  I suppose a large part of preference
is what you learn first)

I wanted something like Notes on my Xenix box, but Notes proved too difficult
for me to port.  It also has some problems, as it isn't fully up-to-date with
other news software.

So, I wrote my own Notes-like newsreader, called Tass, which uses the standard
netnews database.  I'm still working on it; it's on a few Xenix sites around
here (and sort-of on a Sun) being tested.  It doesn't post, it doesn't support
kill files, and it doesn't have a sequencer (yet).  But if you like the Notes
index page, it's a great newsreader.  It's also fairly simple to learn, so non
computer types can enjoy the net too.

I've been told that Tass doesn't support enough features to be a production
quality newsreader.  Also, I've heard rumors of super-extensible newsreaders
in the works which could emulate the entire Notes interface with some config
files.

However, I think enough people might benefit from Tass to make it worth
distributing (possibly in alt.sources?)  Anyone interested?

Rich Skrenta
--
skrenta@eecs.nwu.edu