nntp-extensions Re: ietf-nntp NNTP SEARCH extension internet-draft available
Rich Salz
rsalz at osf.org
Thu Oct 31 21:32:07 PST 1996
>I think that it is important to separate "exists" from "is needed".
I once tried to do this -- prune down the "nnrpd commands" in INN.
Could'nt be done. Every single command (and there aren't many of them,
and they're pretty simple, and 977+the two manpages were enough to get
a wide community started hacking) was used by a large existing customer
base.
>For example, I believe that NEWGROUPS is an artifact of a bygone day when it
>was desirable and practical to tell the user about new newsgroups. But today,
>now that every day a hundred new alt.sex.gerbils.naughty.ha.ha.ha.ha groups
>pop up, I see no value in it.
>The issue is to determine need. I believe that "need" means "an IMAP
>implementator is stuck without this function being available, and there is no
>satisfactory alternative." It makes no sense to copy a function from NNTP to
>IMAP just because it's there, or someone who does not plan to implement IMAP
>says it should be there.
It all depends on how much you want to lower the barrier to the One True
Protocol. I am tired of saying I favor diversity until we know what's best.
But if you believe one protocol is the answer, and you want to make it
difficult for the existing userbase to convert because.
>I'm not sure what LIST SUBSCRIPTIONS does. If this is for remote .newsrc
>support, IMAP already supports this with its LSUB command.
Read the NNTP RFC's and drafts. I have been doing the IMAP crowd the
courtesy of not asking for email-based tutorials, and instead tried to
find some time to read the spec. Extend the same courtesy, enh?
>I am still waiting for an answer to my question about the "moral" issues of
>search. Not all that long ago, I heard the NNTP crowd saying that IMAP was
>morally wrong
Please repeat your question. I recall nothing like "morally wrong" coming
up in the discussion -- perhaps you should retract that comment.
I was surprised to see that the "state of the art" in IMAP was an I-D.
Is the IMAP crowd really saying that an NNTP draft should be withdrawn
just because a previous *draft document* was out a few months earlier?
Wow.
/r$
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