ietf-nntp DRAFT summary of IETF 49

[Stan O. Barber]

Charles Lindsey wrote:
> 
> 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.

If we specify HDR based on XHDR, then you are probably right. Today, there is no
HDR documented and I am concered that wildmats might creep in there.

> 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.
> 

I think this notion is a good one, frankly. However, I don't think current
implementations that involve multiple programs have the ability to "switch back"
once they have gone to
"reader" mode.