ietf-nntp Re: nntp-extensions draft-ballou-nntpsrch-00.txt

[Jeff Coffler]

Hi Nat,

I have a comment on your proposal for NNTP.  You said:

>The SEARCH  command searches the newsgroup for  articles that  match the
>given searching criteria.   Searching  criteria consist of one   or more
>search keys.  If there are articles that  match the search criteria, the
>server responds with  code 224 and returns  OVER data for each  matching
>article in the same  format as described  in [NNTP-NEW].  The article ID
>is only  meaningful  when searching either  the  current newsgroup or  a
>single newsgroup.

I think the last line is needlessly restrictive.

I think that, in the case of a search, the return format should be in one
of two formats:

(1) Existing overview format, but modify the article number to be a
newsgroup/article# pair (like "comp.databases:30954" rather than "30954").

(2) Existing overview format with the extension: "Newsgroups: xxx" at
the end, where "xxx" is the newsgroup that matches the article number.

Personally, even though it deviates slightly from the XOVER standard,
I prefer the first format, solely because, in common cases (searching
across a range of newsgroups), you'll have all the information you
need.  The second format is consistent with an extended header for
XOVER, so meshes somewhat nicely with the existing spec, but it would
make it slightly more difficult for the client to get the info needed
(more parsing would be needed).

That's my input.  Otherwise, I thought it looked pretty good ...

	-- Jeff Coffler
	   NetManage, Inc.
           2340 130th Avenue NE
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