[NNTP] [2503] Allow mode-switching servers?

[Charles Lindsey]

In <41AB647A.7070709 at oceana.com> Ken Murchison <ken at oceana.com> writes:

>Clive D.W. Feather wrote:

>> Issue: whither MODE READER and mode-switching servers?
>> 
>> We need to decide once and for all what we are going to do with MODE READER
>> and the idea of completely switching modes in the middle of a session.
>> 
>> Option A: we retain the idea of mode-switching servers. The MODE READER
>> command is significant on such servers; before it is issued, reader
>> commands aren't available, while afterwards transit commands might not be
>> available.
>> 
>> Option B: we forbid mode-switching in NNTPv2, requiring each connection to
>> decide at the beginning whether it is transit, reader, or general-use; once
>> the decision is made, it's stuck with it. MODE READER becomes a deprecated
>> command that does nothing that CAPABILITIES doesn't.
>> 
>> Whichever we pick will require a fair amount of wording to be sorted out,
>> so I'd like to start ASAP.
>> 
>> In an earlier thread Russ seemed unhappy to make this decision, so who is
>> going to?

>I'm in favor of B to clean up the protocol, but from an implementation 
>standpoint does it really matter?  Isn't the cat already out of the bag 
>on this one?

I think we have to stick with A, simply because that is the way INN does
it and it isn't going to go away.

By all means pour cold water on it, deprecate it, threaten to remove it in
the next standard. But it is not going to go away, which means the command
still has to remain with the meaning as outlined above.

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