Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!tcdcs!swift.cs.tcd.ie!maths.tcd.ie!tim
From: tim@maths.tcd.ie (Timothy Murphy)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: list server program, easy..
Keywords: rna
Message-ID: <1990Oct5.150135.26313@maths.tcd.ie>
Date: 5 Oct 90 15:01:35 GMT
References: <1621@i2ack.sublink.org>
Organization: Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Lines: 33

In <1621@i2ack.sublink.org> venta@i2ack.sublink.org (Paolo Ventafridda) writes:

>Some messages ago, lear@turbo.bio.net was putting some ideas
>for a list-server program. Well, RNA 2.0 can be used as a 
>list-server with little work.
>[I hope that by the time you read this, RNA 2.0 will already be
> out on comp.sources.misc ]

Not yet, as far as I can see.

Nelson Beebe (of TeX fame) kindly sent me
a very small Unix list-server.
(If anyone wants a copy, ask me.
If the number is vast, I'll post it.)

But this program didn't do quite what I wanted,
and led me to think that the term 'list-server'
is somewhat ambiguous.
Perhaps what I was looking for should be called
an archive-server -- a program which sent out requested files.
The program as it stands is what might be called a mail-server --
it allows people to 'subscribe' to a mailing-list.

I must say I was surprised to find 
that almost all the existing list-servers run on IBM machines.
They run more or less standard software,
serving both the functions described above.

-- 

Timothy Murphy  

e-mail: tim@maths.tcd.ie