[NNTP] LISTGROUP

[Russ Allbery]

Matthias Andree <matthias.andree at gmx.de> writes:

> Will the current article number (pointer) be set to the first article in
> the group, as GROUP demands, or will it be set to the first article in
> the range? I'm inclined to suggest the latter.

After thinking about this for a moment, I have no strong opinion, except
to say that if we want it to be range-dependent, we need to hammer out
exactly what implication that has if there are no articles in the
specified range.

> After that question is answered, the implementation will take fifteen
> minutes in leafnode-2 as proof-of-concept and some minutes to document
> it.

Yeah, that's about how I felt about INN, and the reason why I brought it
up.  If it were any harder than that, I'd want to wait and write it up as
a separate proposal, but this is pretty trivial to do.

> I suggest that the standard DO NOT define a special "current group"
> pointer, as forking code into regular and special case increases
> implementation effort and doubles the testing effort. Keep it simple.
> If the newsreader cannot remember the most recently selected newsgroup,
> it's broken, the standard should not take an interest in this SOEP(*).

Agreed.

> BTW, another round of discussion about such features doesn't make a
> difference. What are a few weeks versus two decades? NNTPv2 needs to
> last another 19 years... so why not do it right? :-)

Man, I hope it won't be another 19 years.  I don't intend to disappear
after we publish; I expect to take a short break and then start looking at
gathering information about what's implemented to prepare for advancing to
draft standard status.

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