Path: utzoo!utstat!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!sickkids!mark
From: mark@sickkids.UUCP (Mark Bartelt)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Is anyone interested in putting local time in the "Date:" header?
Message-ID: <374@sickkids.UUCP>
Date: 13 Dec 89 12:21:25 GMT
References: <54794@looking.on.ca> <14785@well.UUCP> <55511@looking.on.ca> <1915@texsun.Central.Sun.COM>
Reply-To: mark@sickkids.UUCP (Mark Bartelt)
Organization: Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Lines: 25

We've seen nearly three dozen articles on this ridiculous topic, and
I don't believe anyone, including Mr. Poskanzer himself, has provided
any explanation as to why anyone *cares* what the local time was when
an article was posted.

Jim Thompson was quite correct when he pointed out that such a feature
would make about as much sense as

Food:  The poster was digesting pancakes and scrambled eggs

Before anyone goes off half-cocked and patches their news software to
add a new "X-Local-Date:" header, or muck with the "Date:" line, or
perform some other sort of atrocity, it might be wise to pause for a
moment and recall the term coined by Rob Pike:  creeping featurism.
Meaning, of course, that all too many people are better at adding
new features to programs than they are at making sensible judgments
about whether those features ought to be there in the first place.

One could certainly argue that the netnews software passed the threshold
of reasonableness ages ago, but that's no justification for encrusting it
with still more cruft of dubious value.

Mark Bartelt                          INTERNET: mark@sickkids.toronto.edu
Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto             mark@sickkids.utoronto.ca
416/598-6442                          UUCP: {utzoo,decvax}!sickkids!mark