ietf-nntp Where did 497 come from for the max arg length?

[Stan O. Barber]

"Clive D.W. Feather" wrote:
> 
> Stan O. Barber said:
> > Overall line length is 512 (per RFC 977). Each line is terminated with CRLF,
> > that leaves
> > 510.
> 
> Right.
> 
> > RFC977 didn't set a max keyword length, but the longest one I could find in use
> > was 12
> > characters. So, the text says:
> >
> > "Keywords MUST be at least three US-ASCII characters and MUST NOT exceed 12
> > US-ASCII characters."
> 
> Also okay.
> 
> > 509 - 12 = 497
> 
> No, lost me.
> 
> PAT is 3 characters. So in theory the arguments could be 506 characters
> long if it were not for this 497 limit. So, is there an actual reason for
> the 497, or is the only logic your calculation up there ? If the latter,
> then this wording should go - people can rely on the 512 limit and work
> from there.

It was my intent for it to be possible to have the same arguements be able to be
use for
multiple commands. By keeping the length limited to what can be used by the
shortest command
to be no longer than that which can be use by the longest command, we insure
that the same
max length can be used for all. This makes client and server implementation
easier.

You may not agree with this logic, but that is why it is. 

Now, if there is consensus to change this and some one provides suitable
replacement text to
explain this clearly, a change can be done. Until then, it will remain as
written.