ietf-nntp Newsgroup Name Length Question

[Eric Cole]

Hello

I am writing a file system for news.  I chose 192 characters as the
arbitrary maximum newsgroup name length.  this is about twice as long as
any newsgroup name around and a nice hex number.

I see no reason to limit segment names.  Compatibility with old servers
should not be a primary concern.  some newsgroups have segment names in
excess of 32 characters now.  imposing this old limit would break many
current newsgroups.

Limiting newsgroup name length to something under 256 allows for a lot of
implementation advantages.  I do not see a need for such long names.
Imposing a limit now will not break anything.  I think there have been
newsgroup names over 100 characters, so 200 or 0xC0 seems a reasonable
limit.

alt.here.is.a.newsgroup.name.that.is.over.two.hundred.characters.long.and.is.jus
t.silly.to.support.because.the.only.need.for.such.a.name.is.to.befuddle.servers.
so.why.do.we.need.to.support.this.nonsense

The arbitrary limit right now could be stated as 498 ( 512 - newsgroups:
CRLF ) unless you can break words in headers.  that much space would allow
for equally long names in alternate and special character sets.

As to the appropriate forum for discussing this topic, I have no strong
opinion.  I apologize to those who feel this should be discussed elsewhere.


Eric Cole
Imagina, Inc.
eric at imagina.com