[news.software.b] checksums in news

jef@well.sf.ca.us (Jef Poskanzer) (07/23/90)

In the referenced message, henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) wrote:
}The trouble
}with checksums is that most people would prefer a slightly mangled copy of
}an article to no copy of the article.

You're probably right about most people, but I'd guess that most people ~
at sites with more than one main feed would prefer junking mangled ~
articles.  And all people everywhere would probably prefer that a ~
mangled copy get replaced by a good copy if one happens along somehow.
---
Jef

  Jef Poskanzer  jef@well.sf.ca.us  {ucbvax, apple, hplabs}!well!jef
                   Null message body; hope that's ok

zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us (Jon Zeeff) (07/25/90)

>}The trouble
>}with checksums is that most people would prefer a slightly mangled copy of
>}an article to no copy of the article.
>
>You're probably right about most people, but I'd guess that most people ~
>at sites with more than one main feed would prefer junking mangled ~
>articles.  And all people everywhere would probably prefer that a ~
>mangled copy get replaced by a good copy if one happens along somehow.

Maybe we need a "received but mangled" flag in the history file.


-- 
Jon Zeeff (NIC handle JZ)	 zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us
Dolphins!  What about the tuna?

dhesi%cirrusl@oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com (Rahul Dhesi) (07/26/90)

I wrote a program called "brik" (see comp.sources.misc from last year)
that is being used for checksums in a couple of newsgroups
(comp.binaries.ibm.pc, comp.binaries.os2).  It deals properly with
lines of text, so that the checksum remains valid after newline
conversions;  it also gracefully allows for changes in headers, as only
text following a Checksum: line is used.  It's probably quite easy to
incorporate a brik-like protocol into news.  Somebody has to do it,
though.
--
Rahul Dhesi <dhesi%cirrusl@oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com>
UUCP:  oliveb!cirrusl!dhesi