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From: dmocsny@UCENG.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Automated news reading software for IBM-PC
Message-ID: 
Date: 29 Nov 88 17:37:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 28

The latest issue of CompuServe's _Online Today_ has an article about
TAPCIS, a program that assists PC-based CompuServe subscribers.  TAPCIS
minimizes on-line time by offloading much of the news reading burden from
the host computer. The TAPCIS user tells TAPCIS to get the article titles
in the ``forum'' (CompuSpeak for newsgroup) of interest. TAPCIS logs into
the CompuServe host, grabs the titles, and then logs off. The user then
marks the titles (s)he wants to read, then TAPCIS logs back in, downloads
them, and logs off again. The user reads them at leisure, replying or
following up as desired, and when (s)he is done, TAPCIS logs in a last
time and uploads all the replies.

Now I don't know what anybody else thinks, but to me this seems like it
would be a big improvement over the ordinary way I read usenet news.  Even
over a 9600-baud line, our poor HP-9000 can't update the screen as fast as
my Compaq could if it was running locally. Especially when 32 other people
are trying to compile. A TAPCIS analog to assist usenet readers cut down
the amount of time news readers spend tying up terminal lines. And what is
the sense of editing replies on the host when I've got perfectly good (and
noticeably faster) editors right on the box in front of me?

So...the big question. Does anybody know of a news-reading program for the
IBM PC and compatibles? If not, would anybody like to write such a
program? Pleeeeease? :-)

Thank you.

Dan Mocsny
dmocsny@uceng.uc.edu