Path: utzoo!utstat!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!pilchuck!amc-gw!quick!srg
From: srg@quick.com (Spencer Garrett)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: C News patch dating
Message-ID: <1990Sep23.013144.12150@quick.com>
Date: 23 Sep 90 01:31:44 GMT
References: <1990Sep17.121127.25859@ni.umd.edu> <1990Sep17.210150.1586@vicom.com> <26FA3C1B.5BB@tct.uucp>
Organization: Quicksilver Engineering, Seattle USA
Lines: 19

In article <26FA3C1B.5BB@tct.uucp>, chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg) writes:
> According to henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer):
> >People who moan that they can't tell which old patches they
> >need don't seem to ever have *looked* at one of our patches.
> 
> This statement is, to be blunt, hogwash.  I have seen every single
> patch to C News, and I've applied them all.  I remain unconvinced that
> the C News patch system is viable as a long-term solution.  (And I do
> not consider my complaints to be mere "moaning.")

Now, Chip.  What Henry is alluding to is that each Cnews patch begins
with a *complete list* of each and every preceeding patch.  Larry Wall's
patch program will happily check that you've applied *all* of the
previous patches, so you really have to work at it to get them out
of order.  The only problem I can see is that it isn't possible to predict
the name of the *next* patch so you can retrieve it from an archive
that doesn't supply directory listings.  I personally rename the
patches to patch.yymmdd form when I get them so they sort properly in
my directory listings, but that doesn't require Henry to change anything.