ietf-nntp DRAFT summary of IETF 49

[Charles Lindsey]

In <3A59D6D9.C8E84914 at verio.net> "Stan O. Barber" <sob at verio.net> writes:

>It was decided to remove PAT. It was decided to consider adding HDR if it not
>create the same type of problem with wildmat that PAT created. Personally, I am
>concerned that adding HDR will just recreate the same problem that PAT does with
>respect to wildmat's usage on items that are not newsgroup names.

Eh? The present XHDR command does not use wildmats (according to the
common extensions document) and so the question does not arise. That was
the whole point of proposing HDR in place of PAT. It will also enable the
removal from Clive's text of any funnies associated with spaces, etc, and
it will leave the way open for someone to invent a new PAT extension in
the future, hopefully using decent regular expressions. The old XPAT
should be allowed to die gracefully.

>> 
>> > MODE READER was discussed, but no one in the group felt that its use
>> > should be required.  A reader can choose to use it or not.
>> 
>> Er... okay.  I guess.  That doesn't make very much sense to me.  "This
>> command is entirely optional, but if you don't send it you may not be able
>> to read news"?

Exactly! A perfect description of the Status Quo!

>I guess it was not clear. All servers that support news reading should not
>require MODE READER in order to allow folks to read news. All servers that don't
>support news reading should generate appropriate error codes (502, typically) to
>indicate that they will not process news reading commands. MODE READER may be
>used by a client to cause the server to "change" to news reader mode if it does
>not start up that way automatically, however MODE READER should not be required
>to get the server to "change".... the usage of a news reading command should
>also cause the server to "change"....

Yes, that is OK, but it needs to be explicitly stated that attempting to
read puts you into reader mode automatically (insofar as that concept is
meaningful outside of particular implementations). It might also be said
that using IHAVE automatically takes you out of that mode. You then
include the MODE READ command as an obsolescent feature and deprecate
implementations that require it.

-- 
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
Email:     chl at clw.cs.man.ac.uk  Web:   http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl
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