Msg: 2624 *Conference*
06-02-92 19:26:11
From: RICHARD NEHRBASS
To : LEX JENKINS
Subj: REPLY TO MSG #2590 (CONFUSERVE)
I've been on CI$ for a couple of years now, and signed up for GEnie about a year ago. It's designed for people who know little about computers, so it is time consuming for an experienced user to wade through a menu hierarchy. I don't spend nearly enough time on CI$, nor do I have the inclination to learn it well enough to use command mode(no menus at all), so the trick is to learn other shortcuts. Ctrl-C, the break key, you probably know already, but two others I know about are ctrl-O and ctrl-P. Ctrl-O stops the flow of information, so if you get in a long file and want to get out of it, just hit ctrl-O. Ctrl-P is a system interrupt that takes you directly to a "!" prompt. I make extensive use of this, letting enough of a menu scroll to refresh my memory, hit ctrl-P, and without waiting for CI$, type in my command. This saves me a LOT of time! GEnie, at least to me, is slower than CI$, but hey it's cheaper. In my opinion, they complement each other; I can spend a long time on GEnie without fear of running up huge connect time bills, while Compuserve is useful because of it's vastly larger number of users and it's extensive database. I believe we are on the edge of a new frontier in data communications and it's really exciting to watch new developments. Have fun, and I hope this helps. RICH