Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Our friend, the GMT date.
Message-ID: <1989Dec6.031329.13569@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <4364@helios.ee.lbl.gov> <14810@well.UUCP> <1989Dec3.210413.27043@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu> <56239@looking.on.ca> <1989Dec5.142032.7706@talos.uucp> <1601@intercon.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 89 03:13:29 GMT

In article <1601@intercon.com> amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker) writes:
>...constraints imposed by universal compatibility with existing sites that
>would no longer exist if one were to write news from scratch today, such
>as:
> ...
> - using the UNIX file system as a database index

Be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.  In the early days
of C News, Geoff and I spent a lot of time mulling over alternate ways of
organizing the database.  We finally concluded that there was no alternative
we could think of that was worth the trouble.  (At that time, newsreaders
hadn't proliferated to the same extent -- C News has had a *very* long
gestation period -- so compatibility wasn't a big part of this.)  The
present scheme has some disadvantages, but it also has advantages.  The
Unix file system is not a bad way to organize a database.
-- 
1233 EST, Dec 7, 1972:         |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
last ship sails for the Moon.  | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu