ietf-nntp Wildmats

[Tim Roberts]

I definately should have thought before I wrote.  You are correct in
pointing out my inconsistency and misunderstanding.  However, I'm still
confused at what 'rightmost wins' means - does it mean specifically the
rightmost element or that the components are evaluated from right to left
with the first match 'winning'?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Clive D.W. Feather" <clive at demon.net>
To: <ietf-nntp at academ.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2000 11:01 AM
Subject: Re: ietf-nntp Wildmats


> Tim Roberts said:
> > 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)?
>
> Except that that is neither what currently happens nor what you obviously
> suggest:
>
> > 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...
>
> The string aaaa does not match c*, so your "matches all" rule fails.
> The string cccc does not match a*, so your "matches all" rule fails.
>
> "a*,!*b,c*" means "begins a and doesn't end b, or begins c"
> "a*,c*,!*b" means "begins a or c, but doesn't end b"
>
> In particular, consider "alt.*,!alt.binaries.*,alt.binaries.special.*".
> With "rightmost wins" this means "alt.binaries.special.*, plus all of alt
> except alt.binaries". What do you think it means ?
>
> --
> Clive D.W. Feather  | Work:  <clive at demon.net>   | Tel:  +44 20 8371 1138
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>