Path: utzoo!utstat!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!math.lsa.umich.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucsd!brian
From: brian@ucsd.Edu (Brian Kantor)
Newsgroups: news.software.nntp
Subject: Re: mail & news demons
Message-ID: <16896@ucsd.Edu>
Date: 6 Aug 90 21:53:07 GMT
References: <2023@trlluna.trl.oz> <16874@ucsd.Edu> <ANSELMO-ED.90Aug6141919@bigbird.cs.yale.edu>
Organization: The Avant-Garde of the Now, Ltd.
Lines: 20

In article <ANSELMO-ED.90Aug6141919@bigbird.cs.yale.edu> Anselmo-Ed@cs.yale.edu (Ed Anselmo) writes:
>>>>>> On 6 Aug 90 17:53:10 GMT, brian@ucsd.Edu (Brian Kantor) said:
>
>Brian>  [mini-inews now sends a password to the server]
>
>What about nntp newsreaders that don't use the mini-inews (Xrn, GNUS)?
>I know I could add the authentication stuff into Xrn, but GNUS?

So why not add it to GNUS?  Presumably somewhere inside GNUS there's the
similar code to what the mini-inews does.  How you secure the password
is up to you.

There are two basic philosophies of program design.  One is the Unix
approach, where simple atomic tools do one thing well.  The other is
the PC/Mac approach, where gigantic tools do a lot of different things,
none of them well.  Having one tool invoke another to perform a simple
task is an example of the former approach.  There are a lot of arguments
for designing things that way.  Ease of adapting to new environments is
just one reason.
	- Brian