andrew clarke wrote in a message to William McBrine:

 ac> Thu 2003-08-14 00:00, William McBrine (1:106/2000) wrote to andrew
 ac> clarke: 

 ac>> I've always thought that anyone really serious on using FidoNet
 ac>> echomail should be encouraged to use purpose-built FidoNet software, as
 ac>> opposed to BlueWave or QWK.

 WM> But, Blue Wave IS purpose-built for Fidonet. (Check out the 
 WM> structures -- they're dervied from FTSC-0001.)

 ac> I was referring to the software that supports those formats rather
 ac> than the formats themselves, although I suppose the real advantage
 ac> to using the FidoNet stuff is when you replace:

 ac>   1. telnet to remote
 ac>   2. login
 ac>   3. traverse menus
 ac>   4. upload .rep packet
 ac>   5. download .qwk packet
 ac>   6. logoff

 ac> with:

 ac>   1. tell binkd/argus to poll the remote

 ac> In the case of a QWK session (even if you automate it with 
 ac> scripts/macros) any errors during the session have to be handled 
 ac> with human intervention.  In a BinkP session the equivalent of 
 ac> steps 1-6 are completely automated, so you can't miss a step, or 
 ac> repeat a step twice - in particular,  you can't upload your mail 
 ac> more than once, which was often a problem when I used QWK (a long 
 ac> time ago now). Any errors along the way are handled gracefully, 
 ac> eg. a failed session (where the remote host may be down) can be 
 ac> re-tried automatically.  Also, you get to keep an archive of all 
 ac> the old messages in an echo for as long as you decide, in the same 
 ac> database (unlike QWK or BW where your mail gets scattered 
 ac> everywhere).

I started out way back in the days of cp/m doing stuff manually,  but even
then buffered things to a file,  did my replies offline,  and uploaded them
(thankful for that message upload feature :-).  As soon as I got my first
XT clone I went to a point setup,  using bink 1.5? and similar stuff. 
Editors have changed,  messages went from *.msg to Squish,  but overall the
setup hasn't changed that much over the years,  even when I went to running
the bbs,  fulltime.

I can remember getting handed a package for an offline reader by a couple
who were running a bbs in another state,  wanted me to hook up.  I was
astounded at how much I had to do to connect,  pick the areas that I
wanted,  and then actually sit there online while the bbs packed things up
for me!  :-)  Even then,  the point setup was *much* more efficient in
terms of my time and connect time.

I sure wouldn't want to do it any other way,  though even now callers that
come here for messages still do the QWK thing,  and I watch and see the
system packing things up for them,  etc.  I never favored that enough to
set up any doors and such,  BW or otherwise,  though I can understand the
reluctance of some folks who don't want to have to go through the hassle of
setting up a point...

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