Jan van Oosterwijk writes:
> I prefer mail over news by far, but now that I have been looking
> at comp.lang.fortran for some days, I wonder why there is so much
> more traffic here than on comp-fortran-90?
Probably because some other people have the opposite preference
(that would include me). I'll avoid arguing about why I have that
preference. That would seem off-topic.
> 1) How do I send a message to a news group? Must I subscribe ?
Lots of different ways, actually. If you are desparate, you can
do it by a web interface such as the google groups. That has minimal
requirements and will work, but I find all the web interfaces quite
annoying (not to speak of the impressions that it gives to post from
one of them).
More typically, you need to find a news provider and have
news reading software. (Much like you need to find an email
service provider and have email reading software).
Wouldn't surprise me if tudelft runs a new server, but I don't know.
Most ISPs and many universities and large corporations do. Otherwise
you can find a commercial one (typically about $5 to $7 US per month);
I broke down and signed up with a commercial one from home because I
wasn't pleased with the service my ISP was giving for news (but I'm
quite pleased with the more fundamental parts of their service...the
network connection...so decided to stay with them and just buy usenet
news separately).
There is lots of newsreading software out there, most of it free.
Many browsers come with newsreading features, and there are also
dedicated newsreading programs. I use one built into xemacs (but
then I also use a mail reader built into xemacs).
"Subscribing" to a newsgroup is just a matter between you and your
newsreader software - nobody else is involved. It is just a matter
of telling your newsreader software that you'd like to see that
newsgroup. Well, if you wanted to subscribe to some particularly
obscure newsgroup, you might need to talk to your provider to make
sure that they carry it, but c.l.f. does not count as obscure at all.
> 2) Is there someone out there who uses both (I know there are) and can
> give me a hint on how I can get messages from NEWS into my mailbox ?
There at least used to be ways, but I'm not up on that.
--
Richard Maine | Good judgment comes from experience;
[log in to unmask] | experience comes from bad judgment.
| -- Mark Twain
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