ietf-nntp Discussion of draft-dfncis-netnews-admin-sys-04.txt

[Robert Schuettler]

On Tue, Jun 04, 2002 at 06:46:45PM +0000, Charles Lindsey wrote:

> >note that the term is used according to "wildmat(3) from libinn". If an
> >explicit definition is really necessary and wanted within the NAS
> >document, we could probably borrow it from section 5 of
> >draft-ietf-nntpext-base-15.txt.
> 
> That text is very long and tedious (and still possibly not final). It
> would be safer to wait till the NNTP Ext draft is accepted and then refer
> to the RFC.

It would be easiest to just go ahead with the current wording. We can't
really wait for NNTP Ext to reach RFC status to refer to it from within
the NAS document as the project supporting the work on NAS (DFN-CIS)
will be running out at the end of next month. It will be much harder to
put in time and people after that - which is why we were hoping to
reach RFC status within the running project (it would also look nice in
our final report ;). It would be nice to be able to give people at
least an approximate date for the RFC status.

> In any case, you still have not addressed the question of why your
> approach is the proper one to follow in the first place, as against, for
> example using the DNS mechanism to distribute this information (as a group
> in Spain are already doing), or else using the existing Netnews structure
> to distribute the information. Anything invplving a brand new protocol and
> a brand new port number needs some justification.

I believe that this discussion has already taken place on the usefor-
list (March 2000). Instead of repeating it, let me just underline that
NAS does not claim to be the one "proper" attempt but is explicitly
designed to work in coexistence with other mechanisms. We know about
the NHNS approach but believe that NAS is more versatile.

BTW: The NHNS draft has expired and work on that project seems to have
been discontinued. We would like to get NAS on the way and see it used - 
and the status of an experimental RFC would surely give things a
reliable base.

We will try to address the other changes discussed in a new working
version of the draft and post the URL as soon as it is available.

-- 
Robert Schuettler                     | rober at cis.fu-berlin.de
Freie Universitaet Berlin             |
Center for Information Services (CIS) | http://www.cis.fu-berlin.de