Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!intercon!amanda@intercon.uu.net From: amanda@intercon.uu.net (Amanda Walker) Newsgroups: news.software.b Subject: Re: Cnews active min field (WAS Re: Cnews setuid(geteuid)) Message-ID: <26-Jun-89.101532@192.41.214.2> Date: 26 Jun 89 14:01:24 GMT References: <1989Jun25.174800.13276@utzoo.uucp> <10931@ibmpcug.UUCP> <1989Jun20.213129.8095@utzoo.uucp> <10947@ibmpcug.UUCP> Sender: news@intercon.UUCP Reply-To: amanda@intercon.uu.net (Amanda Walker) Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation, Sterling, VA Lines: 21 In article <1989Jun25.174800.13276@utzoo.uucp>, henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: > Any sensible news reader has > to be prepared to go in and read the directory itself to find out what > articles are really present. Given that, what use is min? Well, for one thing, not every newsreader has access to the directory itself, which makes this approach a little difficult (NNTP clients, for example). Now, there may be better ways to figure out what's going on :-), but the min field at least gives the newsreader an idea of where to start checking for articles. Even in a sparsely populated group, earlier articles tend to expire before later ones... How much of an improvement to expire's speed does ignoring the min field really gain? -- Amanda Walker InterCon Systems Corporation -- "Those preachers are right--there's more to these songs than meets the eye..." --Arlo Guthrie