kenw@NOAH.ARC.CDN (Ken Wallewein) (07/23/89)
Someone recently posted a request for provision for different user
interfaces. I must admit to some sympathy for this point of view, on behalf
of the users of this system.
As well as ANU NEWS, I have used 'vnews' and 'rn', and have glanced at
'gnus', which looks lie it could be really good. They all have their points,
and environments in which they excel.
ANU NEWS has problems with speed, and can be rather clumsy. It updates
screens far more often than is necessary; unless one is running a really fast
display, this can be tiresome. Many operations are clumsier than they need
be. The help really needs work; there is no good command summary for new
users, and I really think that pressing PF2 should display the keyboard map.
Geoff has been too busy adding functionality to pay a lot of attention to
such niceties, and the file structure strikes me as probably making it
difficult to access with a ported unix newsreader. Am I mistaken? Maybe it
would make more sense to simply add/modify ANU NEWS to provide an interface
that isn't just a rehash of screen mode. Is ANU NEWS laid out is a way that
segregates file handling from the user interface?
/kenw
Ken Wallewein A L B E R T A
kenw@noah.arc.cdn R E S E A R C H
(403)297-2660 C O U N C I L