From: clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: CNEWS or BNEWS (was Re: CNEWS or BNEWS on Xenix)
Date: 22 Dec 92 06:43:59 GMT
Organization: Elegant Communications Inc., Ottawa, Canada

In article <4221@datasci.co.uk> tgll@datasci.co.uk (Tim Lyons) writes:
>I use Bnews on a Sun.

>I have tried to ask one or two questions about Bnews, on one or two
>different newsgroups, but I have only ever got one reply (thanks whoever
>it was), and that said I should switch to Cnews (or INN).

Which is the best long-term solution, but might not help in the
short-term.

>In fact, I can't even find a newsgroup where Bnews is ever discussed, so
>if anyone can suggest a better place to ask I would be grateful as I
>still have some glitches to sort out.

While many people thought the ".b" in news.software.b means "B news",
it ain't really true.  The ".b" refers to "news B format", as contrasted
to "A format" (*really* old).  Which encompasses all current news
transports with the possible exception of such oddities (sorry ;-) as
NOTES or other software that does format conversion via gateways.
Thus, news.software.b is where B news is discussed.  And C news.  And
INN etc...

[One of these days somebody will finally follow thru with a vote
to rename news.software.b to news.software.transports.]

Problem is that B news is *so* old that sites still running it usually
have admins who don't have the slightest idea of how it works any more.
Sorta like trying to find an IBM CE who still knows how to fix 7094s.

There are a few admins around that still know B news pretty well w.r.t.
historical (eg: very old) problems.  But very few.

I'm still running B news.  Somebody's gotta have a reference system ;-)

Seriously, my feed is so small, and my config works well enough that
there's never been any great need to switch.  But I certainly don't
install B news anywhere new.  I've been running C news elsewhere since
1986...  And eventually, another B news site will bite the dust...
[Probably the C news March release will be it...]

While you might get an answer out of me or Jerry Aguire (still on B
Jerry?) or a couple of others, if you need support, continuing
with B news is a mistake.  Creating new B news installations is crazy.

I repeat: do NOT create new B news installations.  Take it from
an old B news hacker - you'll regret it.  It's still has nasty bugs,
is slow, awkward, ponderous, and can't handle high loads, botched
article formatting or 8 bit character sets.

[I think I'm one of the few "bilingual" news admins - currently
administering/hacking both B and C news sites.  Soon to be
trilingual - INN].

>In the absence of replies, I periodically think that I really must
>think seriously about switching to Cnews, so I have the following
>question: 

>Can anyone give me any advice on switching from Bnews to Cnews?  Are
>there any particular problems or issues I should look out for?

While it ain't exactly close-your-eyes trivial, it's not hard.  Follow
the instructions in the C news documentation and you'll get to something
solid without much trouble.  Doublecheck that your spacefor, and queue
length stuff works.
-- 
Chris Lewis; clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca; Phone: Canada 613 832-0541
Psroff 3.0 info: psroff-request@ferret.ocunix.on.ca
Ferret list: ferret-request@ferret.ocunix.on.ca
Xref: sparky news.software.b:3619 news.software.nntp:1717 news.software.readers:2542