wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (10/16/84)
It looks like this system just had the new version installed. Various things have broken (like I cannot get to net.cooks, even though there is new news there), but there is one that is probably a serious bug. Recall my earlier posting about items shown with "Lines: 0" even though there are some lines of text? Instead of just screwing up the hand-off to "more", the new version displays the prompt string of "[nqfr]" instead of the usual "[ynq]" you see on ordinary items, and goes on to the next item when you give it a Carriage-Return! At least the old version let you see the posting! The new one assumes that the "Lines:" field is correct. As we have seen over the net recently, the "Lines:" field is often NOT correct at all. Many, if not most postings with "Lines: 0" really have some number of lines of text in them. This new software only lets you see the contents if you "s" save the item in a file and then look at it outside of readnews! BAD NEWS! (Hmm, that's a pun, son!) (Just like "bad dog!" as an alternate meaning, too...) Let's get this bug fixed soonest! With more and more "false-zero-length" items scattered across the newsgroups, this will seriously impact our ability to read the news! Will Martin USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin or ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA