Re: Apple II Email (Network Connections)

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <32600A7A.1EF0@wctc.net>, Jack Friess  <jfriess@wctc.net> wrote:
>[This is being posted to csa2.programmer.]

   However it's not about programming except in very abstract terms,
so it's being redirected to comp.sys.apple2.

>  (While one could run Unix/Linux on an older 
>(286?) IBM, it would make a poor _LAN_ mail server for most school 
>applications--so a Pentium would have to be purchased anyway.)

   386 minimum if you want to do anything halfway useful.

>If we contacted one (or all) of these  companies, then I think the gist of 
>the conversation should not center on PPP and TCP/IP, but rather are they 
>willing to rewrite their program so that kids can use it easier.  Then we'd 
>have to find, or get the Unix/Linux folks out there to write, a more 
>kids-friendly email client. (Let's see, Pine, Elm...should we call it 
>Willow?). 

   Once again, this "we will tell the programmers to do X" approach.
Sure, your cause may be noble. Sure, you've got a 1.8MB program that
you're going to tell people to rewrite. (And from what I can tell,
pine was developed to be a less confusing elm in the first
place). Sure, you're asking for basic "how to program books." But, are
people with a clue listening and volunteering?

   Beyond the nice talk, do you have an understanding of the apparent
gap between what you're trying to pull off, and the perceived level of
your programmers? Are you really getting committed to the months of
work needed to pull something like this off? [Especially the
programmers, not just those who'll talk forever.]

>But before we start contacting a bunch of company executives and push on 
>some guilt buttons (or however it is we plan to get their cooperation),

   If this is as good a strategy as you can come up with for getting
people to do things, you've got a damn small chance of getting
anything done. Sure, guilt may work for starting (stupid) social
programs under a socialist government, but you're going to get the
third assistant flunkie to the vice president of media relations
reading and junking your letters, if that.

   You may get lucky, but in my not so humble opinion, your plan
depends on way too much luck, and not enough people with clues.

Nathan "Reality Check" Mates
--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
# What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_?
# Shun wishful thinking, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors
# think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places?  -R.A. Heinlein