Path: utzoo!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!shadooby!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!well!jef
From: jef@well.UUCP (Jef Poskanzer)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: What should go in the References: line?
Message-ID: <14619@well.UUCP>
Date: 18 Nov 89 20:40:44 GMT
Reply-To: Jef Poskanzer <jef@well.sf.ca.us>
Organization: Paratheo-Anametamystikhood Of Eris Esoteric, Ada Lovelace Cabal
Lines: 21

Email from Brad and the posting from Karl reveal that the only reason
they think there is a problem with  References: %i  is that their
software is badly written.  A competent programmer will have no
difficulty handling a message tree with only immediate parent
references.  A competent programmer will realize that this is all he
or she can reasonably depend on having.  The net should not feel
obliged to bear the burden of "% interp buffer overflow" and > 256
character lines just so that Brad and Karl can get by with simple
but fragile code.  The net is not a simple place, guys.  I'm sorry,
but you'll just have to adapt.

I have been using  References: %i  for three years, everyone I have
set up to use netnews uses it too, and we will continue to use it.
If you don't want *your* message trees fragmented, then fix *your*
software.
---
Jef

      Jef Poskanzer  jef@well.sf.ca.us  {ucbvax, apple, hplabs}!well!jef
"...but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand than it becomes a torpedo to
            him, and benumbs all his faculties." -- Samuel Johnson