rn under DOS?

[John Girard]

For those who think this sacreligious, I apologize...

I am looking for ways to use my AT hosting DOS 3.1 to send 
and receive mail and to receive and post news.

In terms of sending and receiving email, I have learned of
UUPC (which I thought was commercial, but seems to be in
some PD archives now), and UULINK which does email and  
can receive news groups unbatched.     

The next step after being able to receive the groups is to
be able to read them and respond with a utility like rn, due 
to familiarity
and convenience.  Our local guru is in Tibet (doesn't that
seem appropriate?) so I couldnt ask him.  A search for our own
network copies of the rn files didn't surface any readme files
that explained the assembly of the programs nor hinted at DOS
compilation.

Advice will be appreciated, including criticism of DOS, if it 
includes compelling alternatives using UNIX or a UNIX workalike
on my AT.  

I define compelling as:  clever+cheap+<10mb for sys files.

Thanks

JOHN GIRARD  415-823-1961 {att,sun,pyramid}pacbell!jeg

(my other machine is a SUN 3/260)