Re: OT: MacBook

T i m <news@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:22:05 +0100, des <des@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <k0chl49kgudqhajch40g8k7mgrauloakjd@xxxxxxx>,
T i m <news@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

What do you use this 'graphical thread display' for? I mean. if it was
that important wouldn't we all need it?

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/yitzhakgoldstein/3147325428/sizes/o/>

It's very easy to see who's responding to what, to whom, and to nip back
up and further down the thread, to follow its evolution.

Yup, without realising it and not having such a 'graphical' view it's
pretty well what I get under Agent. I certainly can't remember having
any major issues re not knowing who I was replying to or any interest
in what the 'picture' looks like.

It's nothing like what you have in Agent. Agent, like nearly all other
news readers, has a standard hierarchial display of threads. Yes, you
can navigate quite well with this method, but I find it's much clearer
with the graphical display.

There are some subtle features with this as well, such as your own
articles being highlighted, and markers for sub-threads from your own
replies, amongst others.

Of course, if you've never used it, then you won't have experienced the
advantage.

FWIW, I too was a MacSOUP sceptic when I first started using newsgroups,
and I did find the learning curve a litle higher than with other readers
(i.e. I needed to read the manual, and ask questions). However, with
some perseverance I got used to it, and now find any other thread
display confusing and clumsy.

MT NewsWatcher can't do this. If I want to move back up a thread, I
need to do APPLE-SHIFT-h to get the headers visible, and then CTRL-
click on one of the 'References:' to go to that post.

Yuk, key-combinations ... we are all mouse n GUI now! ;-)

Key-combos can be a more efficent way to work. For example, to post this
passage, I simply need to close the window and connect to server (I
prefer working in offline mode).

By mouse, I have to move my hand away from the keyboard, find the mouse
(or fiddle around with the trackpad), move the pointer to the close
window button, and then click, then find the menu item to connect to
server.

By keyboard, I don't have to move my hands away from the keyboard, just
hit Command-W, then Command-Option-K, done.

--
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.me.com/andrewhewitt1/>
.