[news.software.b] Usage of Supersedes

lear@turbo.bio.net (Eliot) (07/23/90)

It surprised me that Supersedes is had not been widely implemented.
It was initially hoped that the usage of Supersedes in the map data
would encourage people to move to the new software before their spool
directories filled.  That didn't happen, because most of the uuhosts
like scripts copy off the maps from the spool, with expiring deleting
them right behind uuhosts.

Amanda may have a very good point about creating a ``USENET II''.
-- 
Eliot Lear
[lear@turbo.bio.net]

fmayhar@hermes.ladc.bull.com (Frank Mayhar) (07/24/90)

In article <Jul.22.15.15.17.1990.726@turbo.bio.net>, lear@turbo.bio.net
(Eliot) writes:
|> It surprised me that Supersedes is had not been widely implemented.
|> It was initially hoped that the usage of Supersedes in the map data
|> would encourage people to move to the new software before their spool
|> directories filled.  That didn't happen, because most of the uuhosts
|> like scripts copy off the maps from the spool, with expiring deleting
|> them right behind uuhosts.

Well, if you didn't have to unshar the map files, we could just leave the maps
in the spool directory, and Supercedes would work like as originally expected.
Unfortunately, you _do_ have to unshar them, and it's way too expensive
to keep two copies of the maps.  So...unshar the maps into some other area
as they come in, and quick-expire the map articles.  I would personally like
very much to be able to just feed the articles themselves into pathalias (and
I probably could if I weren't too lazy to write a script to do it), but the
way the maps are currently handled doesn't lend itself well to that.

|> Amanda may have a very good point about creating a ``USENET II''.

I agree.  That's probably the only way we'll be able to make significant
changes in anything like a timely manner.
-- 
Frank Mayhar  fmayhar@hermes.ladc.bull.com (..!{uunet,hacgate}!ladcgw!fmayhar)
              Bull HN Information Systems Inc.  Los Angeles Development Center
              5250 W. Century Blvd., LA, CA  90045    Phone:  (213) 216-6241

blm@6sceng.UUCP (Brian Matthews) (07/24/90)

In article <1990Jul23.204531.3178@ladc.bull.com> fmayhar@hermes.ladc.bull.com writes:
|Well, if you didn't have to unshar the map files, we could just leave the maps
|in the spool directory, and Supercedes would work like as originally expected.
|Unfortunately, you _do_ have to unshar them, and it's way too expensive
|to keep two copies of the maps.

Nope.  At my previous job, I had modified pathalias to skip the shar
header stuff and then process the map info, so I didn't need the map
files except in the spool directory.  Unfortunately I lost the changes
when I changed jobs, but as I recall they were fairly simple.  I'd
make the changes again, except I now just punt path lookup to a
neighboring site :-) (with the sites permission, of course.)

||> Amanda may have a very good point about creating a ``USENET II''.
|I agree.  That's probably the only way we'll be able to make significant
|changes in anything like a timely manner.

That's the only way we'll be able to make any significant changes *ever*.
Usenet (Classic :-)) is very entrenched and many of the installations
unsupported, so any change that requires all sites to upgrade their
software will never fly.  Usenet II (Usenets?  Usenetter?  :-)) would,
at least initially, be completely separate (but maybe parallel), and any
site participating would have to be willing and able to upgrade their
software fairly quickly, or be dropped.  Eventually gateways could be
written, but I don't think compatibility should be a consideration for
Usenet II.