davidson (06/05/82)
I find the 14 character limit on newsgroup names (and file names in general) rather annoying. Until the filename length restriction is removed, I'd like to suggest a fix. Its often been said in describing the naming conventions of newsgroups that they are hierarchical. Alright, then why not store newsgroup net.lang.apl, for example, in net/lang/apl. I think then that we would rarely notice the 14 character limit. If this implementation suggestion is accepted, I would like to suggest that slashes be accepted as an alternative to dots as separators in the newsgroup names, and that an effort to move away from the dot notation be encouraged. Greg Davidson usenet: ...!sdcsvax!davidson arpanet: davidson@nprdc
mark (06/08/82)
Eventually, dots will be turned into slashes internally for purposes of storing articles. But there would be a major upheaval of the network if all the newsgroup names were to suddenly change. Also, using / just because it's handy for UNIX is silly - USENET will eventually expand to other operating systems. This change is on the wishlist for the virtual 3.0 version of B news. Mark