[NNTP] LIST EXTENSIONS (again)

[Mark Crispin]

On Sat, 6 Nov 2004, Andrew - Supernews wrote:
> You don't seem to understand that this is _already broken_.

It works for all of our users, unlike doing MODE READER first.

> Trying to do STARTTLS or AUTHINFO before doing MODE READER (assuming a
> reader client) does not interoperate with existing software in certain
> known (but rare) cases and there is no workaround.

Rare, or non-existant?  We have no reports of such a server existing in 
reality in the wild.

> You still don't seem to be getting the point here. If MODE READER could
> be disposed of that easily, we'd have done it long ago. Nobody likes it;
> it's a really nasty wart on the protocol.

I didn't say that it was easy to get rid of MODE READER; just that it was 
the right thing to do.

Everything that I have heard indicates that this is ultimately a matter of 
implementation elegance in inn rather than an insurmountable barrier.  It 
isn't a "doing that will make my server three orders of magnitude slower" 
issue.

I don't mean to belittle the work that Russ will have to do (in fact, I'll 
buy him a six-pack of his favorite brew as recompense).  I'm just claiming 
that the greater good is to move forward in the NNTPv2 world without MODE 
READER.

Yes, for the time being, clients will have to worry about MODE READER. 
But we can fix things today so that clients 5 years from now won't have 
this burden.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.