[ietf-nntp] Fwd: New NNTP standard in Working Group Last Call

[Charles Lindsey]

>Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 15:40:36 +0000
>From: "Clive D. W. Feather" <clive at on-the-train.demon.co.uk>
>Subject: Re: New NNTP standard in Working Group Last Call

>In article <87u10t4qie.fsf at windlord.stanford.edu>, Russ Allbery 
><rra at stanford.edu> writes
>>> But the only thing I really dislike about it is that it makes official
>>> the bug in many servers where they send '0' as the message bymber in the
>>> 2xx response to STAT <message-id>, ARTICLE <message-id>, etc.
>>
>>This is not a bug; this is completely intentional.  Whether it's the
>>behavior that you *want* is another question.  :)

I agree. It's a feature. And we spent a lot of time weeding out the cases
where it was not applied.

>[...]

>I wouldn't have a problem with making it a MAY. No server would have to 
>change unless the author wants. A client can't rely on it, but can use 
>it if the number is provided.

>So the wording covering article numbers - not just for STAT, but 
>throughout - would be something like:

>     The article number MUST be replaced by "0", except that if there
>     is a current group and the relevant article has an article number in
>     that group, the server MAY use that number instead.

Looks like a Kludge to me. Leave it as it is. Simplicity and consistency
is what counts

-- 
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
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