When working with slip, netcfg creates a chat script, but
then translates it into a dip script.  But the translation
is trivial, and completely unusable for non-trivial
applications.  For example, what I _need_ is a dip sequence:

sleep 2
send &
sleep 1
send &
sleep 1
send &

I could, in theory, create this effect in chat with
"\d\d&\d&\d&", but netcfg translates that to

send \d\d&\d&\d&

which is of no use at all.

Between this, and the fact that linuxconf doesn't do the
chat-to-dip translation in the first place, it took me days
to get a connection to my IPS (IBM Global Network), and I
had to do it by a completely bass-ackwards
reverse-engineering attempt.  linuxconf, netcfg and usernet
should all work together, and either usernet should do slip
 with chat or linuxconf and netcfg should allow the user to
create a dip script in the first place.  Or just replace all
this hoo-hah with instructions in the install manual on how
to use chat or dip directly.  Right now, I feel like the kid
in the poster with spaghetti dumped all over him.

(For what it's worth, I'm a professional programmer with 34
years of experience, including about 2 years on IRIX.  But
I'm new to Linux, and I've never done slip or ppp before
without ISP-provided dialer software.)