On Mon, 14  Sep 1992 09:48:42 CDT  Natalie Maynor <[log in to unmask]>
said:
 
>I  find  using  internet  mail  quicker and  easier  than  using  bitnet
>interactive commands: the internet mail  gets there faster; I don't have
>to worry about whether the link is up;
 
I believe we  have already established a couple thousand  times that your
BITNET setup is screwed up and  not representative. On a normal system, a
TELL arrives within  maybe 5 and at  most 10 seconds, which  is less than
the time required by the few extra keystrokes you need for mail, plus the
time  for the  user interface  to  start up,  for the  message to  travel
through the mailer into the SMTP process, and so on.
 
>the response  arrives as mail  rather than hopping  onto my screen  in a
>disruptive way.
 
I believe  it has already  been mentioned that ancient  operating systems
*present* interactive messages to the  user, rather than dumping the text
to the terminal, wherever the cursor happened to be and without regard to
whatever happened to be there.
 
The conclusion  is that BITNET  is not an  attractive network for  a unix
system with  a low-quality RSCS  emulator (actually, there is  no quality
RSCS emulator for unix) and the resulting screwed up setup. Maybe that is
why unix sites only amount to 8% of the BITNET community.
 
  Eric