north@down.FUN (Stephen C North) (12/17/84)
I am appalled at the increasing number of articles that begin with many "> included" lines, sometimes more than one screen's worth. Why has this feature been hacked into new programs anyway? Aren't even the implementors of news software clever enough to realize that they're working with a DATABASE? For shame! Stephen C North
markb@sdcrdcf.UUCP (12/18/84)
In article <395@down.FUN> north@down.FUN (Stephen C North) writes: >I am appalled at the increasing number of articles that begin with >many "> included" lines, sometimes more than one screen's worth. >Why has this feature been hacked into new programs anyway? Aren't >even the implementors of news software clever enough to realize that >they're working with a DATABASE? For shame! > > Stephen C North Yes it is a DATABASE. But, you must remember that the database has two properties that greatly impact this problem. 1. The database is distributed. This means that we have all the problems associated with distributed databases. The message the followup applies to may not even have arrived yet on the machine where someone is reading the followup. 2. The database is not the most reliable database system in the world. This means that the message that the followup applies to may never show up on some machines. I agree that several screen fulls of "> included" lines at the beginning of am article is not nice to read thru. But, I like followups that reply to a massage in a point by point manner, alternating old text with the new. Mark Biggar {allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,akgua,sdcsvax}!sdcrdcf!markb