[news.software.b] C news compatibility with NNTP

brian@ucsd.EDU (Brian Kantor) (08/19/89)

In article <6722@cs.utexas.edu> fletcher@cs.utexas.edu (Fletcher Mattox) writes:
>If C news is backward compatible with B news, then why do I have to
>have to modify NNTP to work with with C news?
>
>Fletcher

Now wait a minute:  You don't have to modify NNTP to work with C news.
You might have to modify the particular implementation that you have,
but you don't have to modify the PROTOCOL, dammit.

NNTP was designed to be as independent of the underlying news storage
and retrieval systems as we could economically make it.  I think we
mostly succeeded.  Certainly I don't know of any major incompatabilities
between the PROTOCOL and the use of C news for storage and retrieval.

Remember that you're probably using an implementation of NNTP that
was probably designed for interoperation with B news.  That you'd
have to modify it for the changed internals of a new news system,
especially one that only claims compatability at the RFC level,
shouldn't surprise you at all.
	- Brian

fletcher@cs.utexas.edu (Fletcher Mattox) (08/20/89)

In article <1909@ucsd.EDU> brian@ucsd.edu (Brian Kantor) writes:

>Now wait a minute:  You don't have to modify NNTP to work with C news.
>You might have to modify the particular implementation that you have,
>but you don't have to modify the PROTOCOL, dammit.

Calm down.  I thought it was fairly obvious that we were talking
about news implementation and not NNTP protocol.  My kvetch was about
case sensitivity of message-ids.  It was made in that context.  

Nowhere did I mention NNTP protocol let alone suggest that NNTP
protocol should change.  However, now that you mention protocol,
the message-id IS part of the news protocol, and I dearly wish
there were some unanimity wrt case sensitivity ...

Apologies if my use of capital letters implied something more to you;
I did not intend that to happen.

Fletcher

henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (08/20/89)

In article <6725@cs.utexas.edu> fletcher@cs.utexas.edu (Fletcher Mattox) writes:
>... However, now that you mention protocol,
>the message-id IS part of the news protocol, and I dearly wish
>there were some unanimity wrt case sensitivity ...

Well, the existing standards are consistent and unambiguous.  It is
unfortunate that no existing news system implements what they call for...
although the sheer ugliness of what they call for may have something
to do with that.
-- 
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1989 X.400 specs: 2200+ pages. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu