Mats.Sundvall@BMC.UU.SE (12/06/90)
Today a message was posted on comp.os.mac.software about a news reader for
macintosh. I downloded it from sumex-aim and tried it out.
I must say it is the best I have seen for reading news on a mac,
and it is not Hypercard based. Written by Bill Cramer. It is called TheNews. Of
course you still nead a NNTP server and MacTCP with
a TCP/IP link to your server. But if you have that I think it is worth the
shareware price of 25 USD.
Mats
Disclaimer: I have now connections with Bill Cramer. I only tried his news
reader.Mats.Sundvall@BMC.UU.SE (12/07/90)
In article <1990Dec5.203047.74@bio.embnet.se> Mats.Sundvall@BMC.UU.SE writes: > >Today a message was posted on comp.os.mac.software about a news reader for of course it shall be comp.sys.mac.software > >Disclaimer: I have now connections with Bill Cramer. I only tried his news >reader. And I have NO connections... I guess you should not post messages to late at night:-> Mats
smith@mcclb0.med.nyu.edu (12/10/90)
In article <1990Dec5.203047.74@bio.embnet.se>, Mats.Sundvall@BMC.UU.SE writes: > > Today a message was posted on comp.os.mac.software about a news reader for > macintosh. Umm... I looked on our NEWS server and there is no such group (comp.os.mac. software). >I downloded it from sumex-aim and tried it out. We would be very interested as well, it sounds great. What is the full name/IP address of sumex-aim? +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Ross Smith, Cell Biology, NYU Medical Center, 550 First Ave., NYC, 10016| |Phone: (212) 340-5356: FAX: (212) 340-8139 (Alternate NYUMC) (212) 340-7190| |E-Mail: SMITH@NYUMED.BITNET (BITNET), SMITH@MCCLB0.MED.NYU.EDU (Internet)| +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
harper@finsun.csc.fi (Robert Harper) (12/10/90)
The FTP number to SUMEX-AIM is as follows.
$ tcp sumex-aim
36.44.0.6 sumex-aim.stanford.edu sumex.stanford.edu
TheNews can be found in the directory /info-mac/comm
and it is called The-news.hqx and is roughly 200K
and the .SIT file is 145K
-=ROB=-
%% Robert Harper %% HARPER@FINFUN %% HARPER@CSC.FI %%
-=ROB=- %% CSC P.L. 40 %% Bitnet %% Internet %%
%% Espoo Finland %% Tel 358 0 4572076 %% Fax 358 0 4572302 %%harper@csc.fi (12/10/90)
In article <harper.660821463@finsun> harper@finsun.csc.fi (Robert Harper) writes: > Here are my first impressions of TheNews. I downloaded it from SUMEX-aim at 14:00 using hyperFTP (nice programme). Worked on it with Stuffit to extract the documentation and application. Installed it on a MAC with MACtcp by 14:30 Read the documentation, and decide to try to use it to post to BIONET.SOFTWARE. The programme is fast, and is very much better than the hypercard netnewsreader. The user interface is "user-irresistable" as the author Bill Cramer points out. The documentation is excellent... light and easy to read. I simply follow the Quick start method and had the programme up and running after reading 4 pages. The style is very reminiscent of ANU NEWS for VAX which is very visual... basically point and click. The programme is Shareware and you can test it out for a period of 30 days. The manual covers reading newsgroups, reading articles, posting articles, posting followups. There is also a very nice appendix called posting guidlines which is an excellent primer on how to work with USENET. Uncle Rob sez... if you have a MAC with MACtcp and a link to a usenet server. get this programme... it may possibly be the next best thing to sliced bread. %% Robert Harper %% HARPER@FINFUN %% HARPER@CSC.FI %% -=ROB=- %% CSC P.L. 40 %% Bitnet %% Internet %% %% Espoo Finland %% Tel 358 0 4572076 %% Fax 358 0 4572302 %%
Mats.Sundvall@BMC.UU.SE (12/12/90)
In article <1990Dec9.155719.6964@mcclb0.med.nyu.edu> smith@mcclb0.med.nyu.edu writes: >In article <1990Dec5.203047.74@bio.embnet.se>, Mats.Sundvall@BMC.UU.SE writes: >> >>I downloded it from sumex-aim and tried it out. > >We would be very interested as well, it sounds great. What is the full >name/IP address of sumex-aim? > >+-------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: sumex-aim.stanford.edu Address: 36.44.0.6 The file is named TheNews. I have learned that there is a bug/limitation in the box where you enter the Internet number in TheNews. It is simply to small for some numbers. This does not affect me but may affect you. Version 1.1 of The News have fixed this. Mats
kristoff@genbank.bio.net (David Kristofferson) (12/14/90)
To add to the voices about TheNews, a news reader for the Mac: I had a chance to try this out today and agree that for those who desire the Mac interface, this program will be viewed as an improvement over UNIX newsreaders and ANU-NEWS. However, I personally don't find programs like readnews, rn, and vnews difficult to run, i.e., although a Mac interface is a plus, I don't think that it is the biggest advantage over the UNIX software. The main problem with UNIX netnews software is the fact that one often gets stuck using editors such as vi or emacs to compose messages. TheNews is an improvement in that it uses a Macintosh-style editor. Unfortunately, TheNews also has the drawback of having to retrieve news from a file server. In my case, I tried the program using genbank.bio.net as the server (just down the hall over the Ethernet). I found the small delays involved in retrieving messages a bit annoying compared to reading news directly on genbank.bio.net using vnews. Also, since I am not annoyed by emacs, the presence of a Mac-like editor does not compensate me for the added delays. My verdict: if you are a budding network fan, like the Mac, and have someone to help you set this up, you will probably like TheNews. However, if you are an experienced user who is not intimidated by UNIX editors, the extra time involved in using TheNews will not be worth the different interface. After all, news should be something that one scans quickly. If you don't like mainframe/minicomputer editors, a better solution is to use a newsreader with a mouse-driven, cut-and-paste style editor directly on a faster machine that stores news. For Xwindows environments there are programs such as xrn with these features. -- Sincerely, Dave Kristofferson GenBank Manager kristoff@genbank.bio.net
David Kristofferson (12/14/90)
P.S. - For those who use e-mail to read news and have never tried newsreading software, let me add that TheNews may be a relatively inexpensive and painless way to get started if you have a networked Mac. News feeds can be provided by many sites if you do not have a local news server. Please contact us at biosci@genbank.bio.net if you need one.
dwelsh@WATSON.PRINCETON.EDU (12/17/90)
I got a copy of TheNews via FTp the other day. I would like to try it out but it does not accept 12 digit newsserver ip addresses (ie. 128.112.129.130). It also forces you to enter the ip addresses of the server instead of its internet name. At princeton, the netnews mavens are continually moving the service from one machine to another, so the ip addresses will change but you can always find the news at nserver.princeton.edu. Douglas Welsh