[NNTP] Article number wording

Matthias Andree matthias.andree at gmx.de
Tue Jul 19 02:09:37 PDT 2005


Ade Lovett <ade at lovett.com> writes:

> Matthias Andree wrote:
>> I understand that putting up arbitrary limits is tricky as the limit
>> might be chosen too low
>
> The primary problem with limits is the requirement for the associated
> wording of the text around what happens when (not if) those limits are
> reached.
>
>> but article numbers are THE primary index
>
> Absolutely, utterly, and totally, *wrong*.  Article numbers are most
> certainly *an* index, but they are not *the* index.  The fact that a
> given article can have completely different numbers for each of its
> groups across every single Usenet server should make that clear.

In SQL language, consider a group a table (all of the same schema =
columns), one row per article.

The article number is THE de-facto index, ALTHOUGH it is only unique per
(server or site, group) pair. Most NNTP clients access articles by
(group, article number) tuple, NOT by Message-ID. Regardless of the
Message-ID being globally unique for two years or something like that.

Message-ID is used to reference articles, not to access them in the
first place.

Paying attention to interoperability is important, and as you say, not
standardizing is hurting implementors, give a clear and strong
guideline, with "MUST" language, 

-- 
Matthias Andree



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