ietf-nntp Revised Notes from IETF 49

[Clive D.W. Feather]

Lee Kindness said:
> You fail to understand that the addition of the 'UTC' token is totally 
> pointless!
> 
> Every NNTP server that conforms to the new standard will have to
> accept the 'GMT' and 'UTC' tokens on the date related
> commands. However NNTP clients will only ever use the 'GMT' token
> since it guarantees conformity with RFC-977 and the new standard. Thus 
> EVERY server will have code to support the 'UTC' token but no client
> will ever issue it!
> 
> There is no excuse for this - it is bad design!

I agree. Completely.

> This does not concern me, I agree that the date related functions in
> NNTP shouldn't be guaranteed acurate (a dedicated protocol such as NTP 
> should be used for this).

I would like to debate this further at some point.

> However I don't see the need to be
> 'politically correct' (which UTC isn't) and introduce the 'UTC' token.

I regret that I may have argued for it at some point in the past. If so, I
was wrong.

-- 
Clive D.W. Feather  | Work:  <clive at demon.net>   | Tel:  +44 20 8371 1138
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