[NNTP] 64-bit article counter extension strawman

[Jeffrey M. Vinocur]

On Jul 17, 2005, at 8:59 PM, Russ Allbery wrote:

> One possible variation would be to add a new command other than GROUP 
> for
> accessing large-numbered groups and a new command other than LIST 
> ACTIVE
> for retrieving active file information, which would obviate the need 
> for
> client-side negotiation and storing additional server state to 
> remember if
> the client supports large-numbered groups.

I think I agree with this.  The one thing bugging me is that, for 
clients that are already able to handle >32-bit article numbers, it's 
much more hassle this way -- rather than just fiddle the session 
initiation stuff, the client author has to keep state around to know 
which commands to use.

But I really don't want to start piling commands onto the front of 
every NNTP session, and having separate GROUP64 and LIST ACTIVE64 (or 
whatever we call them) seems to be the only way to avoid that.


-- 
Jeffrey M. Vinocur
jeff at litech.org