[NNTP] Article number wording

[Chris Caputo]

On Tue, 19 Jul 2005, Ken Murchison wrote:
> There haven't been any direct responses to my proposed text change, so I'll 
> repeat a variation of it here.  IMO, this doesn't break existing 
> implementations, but urges that they switch over to using 64-bits.  When some 
> server does eventually split back >32-bit article numbers, a 32-bit client is 
> no worse off than if the server rolled over, since there is no documented 
> standard for handling roll over.  The bottom line is that we won't see 
> article numbers exceed 32-bits for several years, so starting the 64-bit ball 
> rolling now seems like a safe, wise, and prudent move.
>
>
>     arrive earlier.  The server SHOULD allocate the next sequential
>     unused number to each new article.
>
> -   Article numbers MUST lie between 1 and 4,294,967,295 inclusive.  The
> -   client and server MAY use leading zeroes in specifying article
> -   numbers, but MUST NOT use more than 16 digits.  In some situations,
> -   the value zero replaces an article number to show some special
> -   situation.
> +   Article numbers MUST be positive integers.  Clients and servers
> +   MUST support article numbers up to, and including 4,294,967,295
> +   (2^32 - 1).  However, due to the exponential growth of Netnews
> +   traffic, it is RECOMMENDED that clients and servers support article
> +   numbers up to, and including 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 (2^64 - 1).
> +   The client and server MAY use leading zeroes in specifying article
> +   numbers.  In some situations, the value zero replaces an article
> +   number to show some special situation.
>
> 6.1.  Group and article selection

Works for me.  I like it.

Chris