🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <DHOLLAND.92Jul30223718@husc10.harvard.edu> dholland@husc10.harvard.edu (David Holland) writes:
> fnord@panix.com writes:
>  > > What specific features are unique?  
>  > The user interface.  Searchlight is remarkable because it is intuitively
>  > simple to use, providing as much hand-holding as you need on-line while
>  > still providing killer features for the power user.
> 
> Hitting single character commands at a top-level prompt is rather remarkably
> like a Citadel. Citadels are criticized for having an impenetrable user 
> interface. I guess it's because you get the additional ability, once you know
> the system, to enter long incantations for specialized commands.

There are hundreds of BBS packages where you hit a single character
to select a command, in the BBS world it's called "hotkeys".

Is there any purpose in having an argument about Searchlight
if you've never seen it?  And if the person you're arguing with has never
used Citadel?  I've used both (SL under DOS and Citadel under Unix) and
they are very different.  I think it's a bit pointless having an
argument about which is better until you've tried them both.

> Citadel doesn't pump any menu at you at all unless you ask for it explicitly;
> but you can always get one if you want it. Much faster.

Searchlight has help levels.  You get menus forced on you if you select
"Novice" mode.  If you do not have Novice selected then menus can be
brought up with ? or F1.

>  > The Message Threading on Searchlight is superior to any product on the
>  > market. When a message comes up, there is an indicator of the number of
>  > replies to it.  You can read these replies without losing your place.  You
>  > can jump up the thread, or across the thread very easily.

This is a load of rubbish, ther are much better message readers around
than the Searchlight one.  Kiwiboard under DOS has an excellent threading
system which I think is much better than the SL one.  trn etc. under
Unix are far superior to the Searchlight one as far as threading goes.

> Btw, does it support multiple arbitrary terminal types, or is it limited to 
> hard-wired ANSI codes?

It is hard-wired.  Emulations supported are ASCII, VT100 and colour ANSI.
This is fine as you do not get people on VT52s et al calling bulletin
boards.  Searchlight is easy to use (I have used many BBS packages on
Unix, DOS and misc others), easier to use than most other DOS packages
.. but it's pretty limited as far as customization goes (sure you
can change the menus and the colours, but the interface and main
functions can't be changed -- this is where a package like Citadel
or Waffle is better as you get the source.
-- 
Pat Cain, PO Box 2060, Wellington, NZ  ()  em: cain_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz