[NNTP] LIST EXTENSIONS (again)

[Russ Allbery]

Mark Crispin <MRC at CAC.Washington.EDU> writes:
> On Fri, 5 Nov 2004, Russ Allbery wrote:

>> Hm.  That strikes me as odd -- how does an NNTPv2 client know if a server
>> advertising NNTPv3 is okay or not?

> The server must advertise both NNTPv2 and NNTPv3.  A server which just
> advertises NNTPv3 is not OK to an NNTPv2 client.

Okay.  Ken's statement was that if NNTPv3 adds to but retains all of
NNTPv2's functionality, the server need only advertise NNTPv3.  Your
statement above implies to me that this is not correct and it does need to
continue to advertise NNTPv2.

> I think that it's better to move away from magic response codes and use
> extensions exclusively.  The fact that authentication is offered is
> enough of a hint to anonymous clients that more can be gained through
> authentication.

Hm.  Yeah, maybe so.  Certainly, the 200/201 distinction in the opening
banner is pretty much a disaster in practice and a POST capability that
changes after authentication is a heck of a lot simpler and more accurate.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra at stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>