ietf-nntp newsgroup production

[Charles Lindsey]

In <Pine.LNX.3.93.1000727211358.3044B-100000 at one.softml.net> Chin Chee-Kai <cheekai at SoftML.net> writes:


>Thanks for including USEFOR definitions, Charles.


>>>
>>> The USEFOR syntax is:
>>> 
>>> newsgroup-name  = component *( "." component )
>>> component       = component-start
>>>              *( component-start / component-other )
>>> component-start = Un-lowercase / Un-digit
>>> Un-lowercase    = <Unicode Letter, Lowercase> /
>>>           <Unicode Letter, Other>
>>> Un-digit        = <Unicode Number, Decimal Digit> /
>>>           <Unicode Number, Other>
>>> component-other = "+" / "-" / "_"
>>>
>>> The complication arises because of the UTF-8 and a desire to exclude
>>> upparcase letters. I do not think we need quite so much complication in
>>> this document, so I would suggest:
>>>
>>> newsgroup	= component *( "." component )
>>> component 	= <a sequence composed of letters, digits,
>>> 		  "+", "-" and "_">
>>> 

>Ah, the USEFOR syntax doesn't quite work.  The "component-start" 
>production does not allow "-" to be used as a non-starting character 
>in the first component of a newsgroup reference.  Currently, just off
>my neighborhood ISP's news server, I already see 
>          "relcom-list.internic.net-happening", and 
>          "z-netz.*"
>as counter-examples.  So Charles, your suggestion is fine, except 
>you gotta add the necessary definitions for "letters" and "digits"
>(though obvious), and also the 0x80-0xFF characters for UTF-8
>multi-lingual newsgroup references.

No, you are wrong. It is only the first character of a component that may
not be '-' etc. There is nothing different between the first component and
the others.

But in any case we should not be using this complicated syntax in the NNTP
standard - that is a job for the USEFOR standard.

All NNTP needs to do is to pass on anything that _looks_ like a
newsgroup-name, and let the server worry about whether it is legal or not.

-- 
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
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