On Sat, 11 Jun 1994 07:04:23 -0500 Natalie Maynor <[log in to unmask]>
said:
 
>That's funny. I have both internet and bitnet available but never choose
>to use interactive bitnet commands  because internet mail is faster (for
>me -- this is not necessarily  true for everybody), mail will go through
>sooner or later even if links are down whereas interactive commands die,
>and I prefer  getting responses as mail because I  find it disruptive to
>have interactive  blurbs hopping  onto my  screen (which  is why  I keep
>'mesg n'  set all the time  (no interactive messages). I  find mail much
>more  convenient  and  orderly  than interactive  stuff  and  am  always
>fascinated  to hear  that some  people prefer  fooling with  interactive
>commands.
 
I am always  fascinated to see that  you don't want to  accept the simple
fact that non-unix BITNET users have a much better implementation of TELL
than you, with the result that:
 
1. TELL is usually faster than mail.
 
2. The reply is presented in a non-disruptive way by the operating system
   and  NOT drawn  over whatever  happened  to be  on the  screen at  the
   current cursor position in a happy-go-lucky fashion.
 
So people  use TELL because  it is faster,  because the reply  comes back
faster, and because  viewing it requires zero keystrokes.  I'm sorry that
your NJE  program is  inefficient and disruptive,  but that  doesn't mean
TELL isn't useful to people with a decent NJE program.
 
  Eric