"Rob Rudeski" <
[email protected]> writes:
> Hi George,
>
> Could you give some examples of things that your newsreader can do?
Do not bother reading the following if you are happy with your newsreader. If all you want to do is
read, post, and manage groups with as simple an interface as possible then don't waste your time
reading the following.
To make a very long story as short as possible: I use gnus to read Usenet newsgroups for multiple
reasons but foremostly because it integrates seamlessly with my favorite editor, emacs. Gnus has
over 2200 built in functions and variables, and if it can't by default do something I want, it can
be user programmed to do whatever necessary. Additionally, all the commonly desired functionality is
bound to simple keystrokes, so one can make very quick work of reading news.
If you've never considered customizing your editor, don't program, don't know what editing macros
are or why you'd want to use regular expressions, then you'd have no use for either gnus or emacs,
and would find it very arcane. Personally, I wouldn't want to be without
it.
Reading WWW forums like yahoo groups is for me an extremely painful experience compared to reading
Usenet newsgroups with my tool of choice. On typical WWW forums all you can do is read, and post,
being forced to use a brain dead pager, and an even worse editor, and you have no control over how
the messages are displayed - including not being able to hide messages you've already dealt with.
However, WWW forums do enable one to participate in Internet discussions with a minimal start up
cost, and if that is all you want and need then that is fine.
I won't take up any more bandwidth here describing what my newsreader can do, and certainly most
folks would not want to use a fully functional newsreader like gnus. If you want to learn more about
gnus and emacs visit www.gnus.org and www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs.html. Note that emacs is
available for MS windows users. The windows version is called ntemacs.
Gnus and emacs are free-ware, and I have nothing to gain by others using these programs except the
benefits of a larger user community.
Note also that gnus isn't the only game in town. I used a threaded news reader called trn
extensively before trying gnus.
---
George MacKenzie Uprights and various homebuilt recumbents