ietf-nntp Wildmats

[Tim Roberts]

I have no issues with the different options (brackets, slashes, etc) however
I find the matching 'rightmost wins' very confusing .  Is there any reason
why it can't simply be stated that a string needs to match ALL components to
be considered a match (which is staight forward, easy to explain and easy to
understand)?

Example
"a*,!*b,c*" and "a*,c*,!*b" would both mean "any string beginning with
either a or c and does not end with b" versus the very confusing "righmost"
example given...



----- Original Message -----
From: "Clive D.W. Feather" <clive at demon.net>
To: "IETF NNTP mailing list" <ietf-nntp at academ.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2000 5:04 AM
Subject: ietf-nntp Wildmats


> I'm trying to pull together all I can remember of the Wildmat issue so
that
> we can discuss it in one thread.
>
> There were a whole load of issues with wildmats, and I've attempted to
> list them here.
>
> (1) Do we want the present informal style of description or do we want
> something more formal ? I did an attempt of the latter which is at:
> <http://www.davros.org/nntp-texts/section-5.txt>. Please look at the
> general format and don't worry about the details for now.
>
> If we do want something more formal, I'm willing to do it based on the
> results of this thread.
>
> (2) Do we want more examples ? My version has a lot more, and in
particular
> attempts to show some of the harder bits (like the effect of \ within []).
>
> (3) If something is described as "a wildmat", does "xxx,yyy" match the
> single string "xxx,yyy" or does it match either of the strings "xxx" or
> "yyy" ? My understanding is the latter, but we need to revisit the
> terminology in each case that it occurs.
>
> The following commands have wildmat parameters:
>     LIST ACTIVE
>     LIST ACTIVE.TIMES
>     LIST NEWSGROUPS
>     PAT                (possibly can take multiple wildmats)
>     NEWNEWS
> and the command LIST DISTRIB.PATS returns a wildmat.
>
> For each of these we need to decide:
> (A) Is there only one argument or are several allowed ?
> (B) What does a comma within the argument mean ?
>
> If we can consistently say that a comma separates patterns, and that
> patterns are matched on a "rightmost wins" basis, then we can simplify the
> terminology and the text. If we don't mean that, we need to decide what we
> *do* mean.
>
> Note that the current documentation doesn't describe commas and doesn't
> explain what negating a pattern is used for.
>
> (4) Should backslash be allowed to remove the special status of characters
> other than the four listed ([ * ? and \), or only those four ? If so,
which
> characters ? If not, how do I escape a comma ?
>
> (5) Do we want \u sequences to allow characters outside the ASCII set to
be
> described using only ASCII characters ?
>
> (6) Do we want a way to escape space ?
>
> (7) Is PAT supposed to have multiple arguments and, if so, how are they
> handled ?
>
> (8) There's a whole range of issues, which Russ describes, to do with
white
> space and header (un)folding in PAT.
>
> --
> Clive D.W. Feather  | Work:  <clive at demon.net>   | Tel:  +44 20 8371 1138
> Internet Expert     | Home:  <clive at davros.org>  | Fax:  +44 20 8371 1037
> Demon Internet      | WWW: http://www.davros.org | DFax: +44 20 8371 4037
> Thus plc            |                            | Mobile: +44 7973 377646
>