Acorn User 3/AUCD3.iso/airport/browsers/acornet/archive/archive897/000077_owner-acornet@…s.barnet.ac.uk _Fri Aug 15 15:35:04 1997.msg

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From: "Carol Carpenter" <[e-mail]>
Organization:  Barnet College
To: [e-mail]
Date:          Fri, 15 Aug 1997 15:32:47 GMT +0000
Subject:       Re: The current plan (comments by R.Sargeant)
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On 14 Aug 97 at 2:25, Richard Sargeant wrote:

> Except you are not /just/ updating the applications in 0.19.  As you

Updating apps in my books means bringing in the latest or best
available currently.  I've taken a look at the latest ttfn and to be
perfectly honest its not a lot different.  Messenger has far more
features, especially as it includes uudecoding and !Newsfind.  It's
certainly my choice at the moment.  Should ttfn get ahead in the
functionality and usability then I would swap it back without
hesitation.


> might gather I am a little concerned on how you have laid the path for
> the migration of current Acornet users to switch over to Messenger.

Migration ? It's just a case of swapping in a different app and then
altering the button definition on the frontend to point to it.  Users
can easily swap back if they want to.

If it really bothers you that much I'm happy to hold a vote on it and
stand by the majority decision.


>
> Obviously Marc Sawle has gained many supporters following his recent
> announcement on Sunday, 27th July made in comp.sys.acorn.announce.

It is very good.  We have known about and been waiting for Messenger
1.0 for a while now.


> It is claimed that TTFN has been updated to 0.40, but it does not
> feature in the documentation that has been updated to reflect your

That's because the acornet stronghelp page links in the !help files
or docs from the apps and without the app there it would produce a
'file not found' message.



> choice to ship Messenger instead of TTFN.  In your last e-mail to me at
> the end of July, you wrote to say you would not be partisan and would let
> the end-users themselves decide which of the applications they preferred.

I'm not.  I said it wasn't set in stone yet.  All the comments have
been praising messenger (on both this list and the newsgroups), quite
a few list people have said it should be the email/news reader. Hardly
anyone has mentioned ttfn.

>
> > I'd like to have an extra archive which contains the
> > latest ttfn and freenews marked as 'alternatives'
>
> I'll re-archive my current copy of 0.40 (last updated for the web
> page <http://www.arcade.demon.co.uk/ttfn.html> on August 1st) and

re-archive it ? why ?  I've put 0.40 on the site already, unless
you've changed it in some way.


> include the update

sorry - what update ?
I'm confused.

I have invited a few people to try out (find it
> at <http://www.arcade.demon.co.uk/ttfn/> - TTFNu040a.zip) which
> contains all newer !TTFN files than are in the 1st August release
> and give it the directory structure needed to slot into !Acornet.

what directory structure ?
You just put it in the apps directory.


>
> > with instructions on how to swap them into acornet.

No I mean a seperate read me in the dir with the alternatives.
Admittedly I haven't done this yet.

>
> I'm not sure about the instructions - some details were removed
> and replaced with those for Messenger, instead of adding to them.

Already mentioned why above.

>
> > As for FreeDial or SlipDial - I'm afraid I'm not the one for that but
> > someone else can do that bit if you really think FreeDial is better.
>
> IMO, the configuration system relies on SLIPdial too much to change it.

I have been playing with freedial - its certainly a nice program.


> >
> > If you are implying that it contains 0.59c then you are correct.
>
> There is no need to be facetious.

In what way is that statement facetious ?  Try looking up the
definition of the word.
You were not making yourself at all clear.




>
> > 0.59d has only just come out.
>
> I installed my copy Sunday lunchtime.
>
> > for, I have to say that ttfn integrates into the acornet setup much
> > better (especially if put yourselves in the shoes of users praps
> > less capable at fiddling and messing with setups).
>
> Thank you kindly for that credit to TTFN.  I'm always open to ideas.

I give credit where credit's due.

> I've already (as of August 1st) cut 35K of text from !TTFN.Docs.Versions.

I'll grab a copy of 0.40a and exchange it for 0.40.



It also looks likely that I will be including ArcWeb 1.90p1 so I
might as well include newsbase 0.59d and groups 0.20 while I'm at it.
(Don't panic - I'll do a patch).

I'd just like to day that I think !Groups is actually a really nice
handy utility.  So I thought it would be a good idea to include, on
the acornet site, the latest list of active newsgroups from demons
ftp server since !Groups asks you to link in a copy on your hard disk
if you have one in.


At the end of the day we could always include both ttfn and messenger.




--
Carol Carpenter
Software Support @ Barnet College
(W) [e-mail]
(H) [e-mail]    http://www.nocturnal.demon.co.uk/