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From: SLOANE@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Bob Sloane)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: Reading news in a thunderstorm is hazardous.
Message-ID: <6414@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Date: 24 Jul 89 15:03:02 GMT
References: <430@decus.com.au>
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
Lines: 35

In article <430@decus.com.au>, sutton@decus.com.au (Colin Sutton) writes:
> I am always on teneterhooks reading news from home via dial-up modem,
> because if the line goes down, all the items I read are now unread again -
> and since people are often unimaginative with subjects, and my memory for
> item numbers is limited, I have to re-read lots of news. Not to mention I
> forget which newsgroups I have read. 
> 
> Couldn't the NEWSRC file be updated as the news is read? A good time to do
> this would be as soon as the item page has been displayed, just before the
> prompt for the next keyboard input. The time taken wouldn't be noticed. I
> assume that the file would be kept open, so it wouldn't take long to
> update. And news would be quicker to exit too - just close the file.

The problem you mention here is not just limited to NEWS. Many products, both
from DEC and others, lose information when the user is disconnected during a
session.  The correct solution, IMHO, is to enable virtual terminals.  Then
the system manager can specify how long the connection should be held when the
terminal is disconnected abnormally, say 5 minutes. That should give you
plenty of time to dial back in and reconnect to the session.  Then you can
exit from NEWS, updating the NEWSRC file normally.

Your proposed solution would slow NEWS down considerably.  Think about how
long it takes NEWS to exit now. Now think about it taking that long after
every article read. Also, the continual updating of the NEWSRC file would
increase the probability that you would be disconnected right in the middle of
an update, thus trashing NEWSRC.  Not a good idea.

I am not sure if the UPDATE command forces a write of NEWSRC, but it might
make sense for it to do so.  Would it solve your problem if there were a
command "UPDATE/NOREAD" which would just write the NEWSRC file out?
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|  Bob Sloane        \Internet: SLOANE@KUHUB.CC.UKANS.EDU/Anything I said is |
|  Computer Center    \ BITNET: SLOANE@UKANVAX.BITNET   / my opinion, not my |
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