ietf-nntp Merging ARTICLE, HEAD, BODY, and STAT

Chin Chee-Kai cheekai at SoftML.net
Fri Jul 28 11:15:27 PDT 2000


On Fri, 28 Jul 2000, Stan O. Barber wrote:

>>...... I think it is important that a document
>>reader can go to a section that describes a particular command and read that
>>section to get as much information about that command without having to read
>>other sections for extensive clarification.

Again, I second this opionion.  It is helpful to an implementor to
find this kind of specification.  IMHO, a specification is different
from a manual or description;  it should define and be as clear
as possible, leaving as little room for guessing and deducing as
possible.

For instance, in current RFC977, for example, in the responses:

>> 3.1.3.  Responses
>>   220 n <a> article retrieved - head and body follow
>>       (n = article number, <a> = message-id)
>>   221 n <a> article retrieved - head follows
>>   222 n <a> article retrieved - body follows
>>   223 n <a> article retrieved - request text separately
>>   412 no newsgroup has been selected
>>   420 no current article has been selected
>>   423 no such article number in this group
>>   430 no such article found

does it say that these responses apply to all of ARTICLE,
BODY, HEAD and STAT as these are under section 3.1, or
only some apply to some of the commands?  Which applies
to which one then?  

Between lengthy, repetitive, yet clear and specific 
specification, versus a version that is shorter and saves
some common words, I'd still vote for the former.

Just an opinion.


Cheers,
CK






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