Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: Notesfiles; site convex.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!cbosgd!mhuxl!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!convex!kolstad
From: kolstad@convex.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.news.adm
Subject: Re: Interfacing netnews and mail softwar - (nf)
Message-ID: <50300002@convex.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 14-Aug-84 11:25:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: convex.50300002
Posted: Tue Aug 14 11:25:00 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 16-Aug-84 01:11:25 EDT
References: <575@ucla-cs.UUCP>
Lines: 34
Nf-ID: #R:ucla-cs:-57500:convex:50300002:000:1565
Nf-From: convex!kolstad    Aug 14 10:25:00 1984

#R:ucla-cs:-57500:convex:50300002:000:1565
convex!kolstad    Aug 14 10:25:00 1984

This discussion seems predicated on the idea that "news systems must
look like mail systems".

Just as 1-2-3 and other spreadsheet programs use a more integrated
approach to solving a specific problem, so does "notesfiles", the
news interface available from U. Illinois.

Over 120 sites now run notesfiles, including a large subnetwork spanning
central Illinois and Texas.  The interface is largely a single-keystroke
screen oriented system.  A sequencer takes you to notesfiles (newsgroups)
and notes (news items) which have not yet been read.  The response mechanism
groups responses and replies to questions in a linear string of notes
along with the original question.  The system is fast and can be taught
to secretaries (who know an editor or who can use a "trivial editor") very
quickly.

There are none of the "line eater" or other kinds of more subtle bugs.
The system relies on your mail system to deliver mail to remote sites
(instead of saving the bizarre pathnames).  I supply a simple front end
and database of sites (soon to be updated yet again, *sigh*).

If you'd like to try the notesfile system (it's quite compatible with
the scheme used by USENET to transmit data between sites), contact
Ray Essick at the University of Illinois (ihnp4!uiucdcs!essick) or
call him at 217-333-7937.

Transfers of notesfile data on a notesfile subnetwork seem to go more
quickly than those of news; notesfiles stores less impertinent information
about a note in a compressed database and hence uses less storage.

Check it out -- you might find that you like it.