[NNTP] LISTGROUP

[Russ Allbery]

Clive D W Feather <clive at demon.net> writes:

> I've just remembered something else that falls into this category.

> Can we make the parameter to GROUP be optional? The effect of omitting it
> would be:
> * If there is a currently selected group, the same as if it were specified.
> * If there is no currently selected group, a 412 error.

> The purpose is to allow the client to determine the currently selected
> group. At present this can be done by using LISTGROUP with no arguments,
> but that produces a list of indeterminate length that has to be thrown
> away.

This is feeling like we're falling down a slippery slope of last-minute
changes to me.  I was willing to pursue LISTGROUP because a few client
authors went "this, this I want to use" when the idea was raised.  Do we
have a similar feeling with this addition, or is it just in there for
cleanliness?  If the latter, I'd rather add it later if a real need shows
up (something that isn't too difficult to do, since right now this is a
syntax error).

My intuition says it would be very strange for a client to not know what
its current group is.

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