Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!intercon!amanda@intercon.com From: amanda@intercon.com (Amanda Walker) Newsgroups: news.software.nntp Subject: Re: .newsrc across the network Summary: And now for a more serious followup... Message-ID: <1516@intercon.com> Date: 29 Oct 89 02:15:19 GMT References: <1510@intercon.com> <10082@ucsd.Edu> Sender: news@intercon.com Reply-To: amanda@intercon.com (Amanda Walker) Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation Lines: 32 In article <10082@ucsd.Edu>, brian@ucsd.Edu (Brian Kantor) writes: > [...] > > Thus someone could, if they wish, simply have the NEXT and GROUPS > commands respond as filtered by the user's subscription and reading > experience as recorded by the server. > > In today's world of high-power workstations, I don't think that's > efficient use of the server, but it's an implementation question that > is site-configurable. Hmm. It's a point, I suppose, but I get bad vibes from having the server maintain the per-user read history. > It would also allow real easy measurement of readership. True. > And it would reduce the size of simple newsreader programs. > - Brian Hmm again. From what I've seen, newsreaders are getting more complex, not simpler. I mean, with NN, rn, GNUS, and so on, newsreaders seem to be heading more toward "NNTP peer" status. And along with that, tranditionally readeresque functions are finding their way into news transfer software (for instance, Brad's "magic sys file" idea). -- Amanda Walker -- "If your application does not run correctly, do not blame the operating system." -- Geoffrey James, _The_Zen_of_Programming