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.