From: ForthNet@willett.pgh.pa.us (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Feedback to the Forth Interest Group
Date: 8 Apr 92 12:33:38 GMT
Organization: (n.) to be organized.  But that's not important right now.

Category 1,  Topic 2
Message 156       Sat Mar 28, 1992
B.RODRIGUEZ2 [Brad]          at 11:34 EST
 
Len Zettel: a fine idea.  I've taken the initiative to give copies of Pygmy
and F-PC to a local shareware distributor (he already had F83).  On a related
topic: I'm thinking that our local FIG chapter should put together some
"Getting started with Forth" packages for various systems that we could give
out to newcomers & interested non- Forthers.  Maybe F-PC or F83 with some docs
on disk for the IBM PC crowd.  Has anyone done anything along these lines? 
Any recommendations for what to include?

Re. Stephen Pelc: I can affirm what he's saying about the cost of PD.  I once
used a PD Forth for a project, and had to invest a few months just getting the
development environment ironed out.  This is why I happily paid $$$$ for
Stephen's product, which I had running in a day or two.

Brian Dunn: _I_ am interested in wordset standards, and I'd be very interested
in your windows and graphics suggestions, since there are two areas in which I
have virtually no experience.  BTW, I've downloaded HLFE.ARC but haven't
looked at it yet; thanks.  Also, I think you to convert 83-Standard, etc. to
ANSI you won't need converters; merely "preludes" -- at least I think this was
one goal of the ANS team.

Dennis, Eric, Chris: Thanks, Dennis for making several good points about
GEnie.  Eric & Chris, some of your comments were also made privately to me by
Dick Miller; allow me to respond publicly:

1. The packet switched network in Canada, Datapac, is NOT cheap. ($50 per
month?)  And it's still a long-distance phone call.  I don't know if PC
Pursuit is available.

2. Killing articles by author and site really doesn't help.  GEnie divides the
Roundtable (equivalent to netnews 'topic') into broad Categories (e.g. ANS
Forth debates), and then subdivides into Topics (e.g. Vocabularies).  I can
exclude by Category or Topic.

3. Don't "compressed netnews batches" imply that I have to download all of the
netnews, and then 'kill' items locally?  This hardly seems economical of my
modem time.  (Dennis mentioned this: the GEnie topics/categories I've blocked
aren't even _sent_ to me.)

4. I've been advised that messages with too much commercial content won't be
allowed on comp.lang.forth.  I'm with the vendors in this: if they want to
announce or advertise products, post price lists, offer customer support,
etc., they should be allowed to.  How do you advertise by email?

5. Since my first posting, I've been advised locally that the problems with
FTP are not with FTP per se, but with certain FTP sites (notably SIMTEL20). 
(But I should point out that I download IBM PC software from GEnie, too.)  Can
archie do keyword searches? And is there a comprehensive FTP library of Forth
stuff?

6. Re. the boycott of GE: I'm not wedded to GEnie, and I'm sorry I gave that
impression.  In some ways CompuServe would be even better for me.  My point is
that the commercial services provide (IMHO) better service.  (And, just
because you're boycotting GE, why should I?  Or FIG?)

7. Re. the pool of "knowledge" on Internet:  my few experiences with netnews
lead me to think it has the lowest signal-to-noise ratio of any network.  This
may be partly because I have no filters in place; more likely, I think it's
due to the hordes of starving students and profs.  (BTW, up here at least,
most profs make more than I do.) Besides -- as you point out -- we DO have
comp.lang.forth, so this is no reason for FIG to abandon GEnie.

Brad Rodriguez
 B.RODRIGUEZ2 on GEnie   |   bradford@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
 So many projects....so little time.

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