[news.software.b] Why we use NN over RN/TRN - Nolo contendre

cluther@supernet.haus.com (Clay Luther) (11/29/90)

When we first got our newsfeed up about 6 months ago, I snagged a copy of
rn and brought it up for the users.  Obviously, it was a vast improvement over
the simple readers that came with the news distribution.  After about a month
or so, I was finally able to get a copy of nn.  Once installed, our users
quickly migrated to it and rn hasn't been executed since last August.  I am
getting pretty close to removing it from the file system.

I loaded trn on for a little while, and notified the users of its existence,
but after a trial period of a week or so, they had all gone back to nn again.

Why?  The answer I here most is because nn "feels better", or something more
akin to "I waste less time in nn."

I personally feel that the rn interface is clunky and obnoxious.  It hides
information from the user rather than letting him see it.  It forces the user
through long modes that he cannot quickly get out of.  Trn did not really add
any new functionality since I feel the threading feature was half-baked (not
stupid or anything like that, but not completely there yet).

Nn allows quick access to news.  It compiles very nicely and has excellent 
support.  (By compiles nicely I mean that we run a really mutant version of
unix with all sorts of stuff that makes compiling other people's software a
real pain in the butt.  Nn required only very minor tweaking, once, to get it
to compile and run.)  Nn is fast and efficient.

Oh well...I anxiously await the next great newsreader to appear to sway us
from nn, but until then, no news is good news.


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