Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!ukc!slxsys!ibmpcug!mantis!mathew
From: mathew@mantis.co.uk (CNEWS MUST DIE!)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: IMPORTANT: Users of Rodney's UUCP modules / GUS
Message-ID: <DByX213w164w@mantis.co.uk>
Date: 14 May 91 14:34:00 GMT
References: <1991May13.172233.5581@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK.
Lines: 58

henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
> Totally incorrect.  C News generates four-digit years everywhere and accepts
> them everywhere.

Dearie me!  RFC1036 says that the format MUST be acceptable to RFC822. And
RFC822 says:

|     5.  DATE AND TIME SPECIFICATION
|
|     5.1.  SYNTAX
|
|     date-time   =  [ day "," ] date time        ; dd mm yy
|                                                 ;  hh:mm:ss zzz
|
|     day         =  "Mon"  / "Tue" /  "Wed"  / "Thu"
|                 /  "Fri"  / "Sat" /  "Sun"
|
|     date        =  1*2DIGIT month 2DIGIT        ; day month year
|                                                 ;  e.g. 20 Jun 82

The year is a 2DIGIT. So four-digit years should NOT be generated.

So not only does C News have the gall to throw away people's postings without
even warning them, on the grounds that they contain bad headers; it actually
generates bad headers itself!

>                      If articles are being discarded, it's because of some
> other mistake.

Look, I don't care what the mistake is or who made it. C News should not
discard an article unless it is unable to correct the header; and if it does
discard an article, it should at least attempt to warn the poster.

Here's an example of one of the "naughty" date headers which was causing C
News sites around the world to throw away half my articles without telling
me:

   Date: Mon 11 Mar 1991 00:32 GMT

Now, why exactly did C News throw the articles away?  Was it because there's
a comma missing after the day name?  That's the only other thing wrong with
that date according to RFC822.

If it *was* the missing comma, then I apologise for assuming that it was the
non-RFC822 4-digit year which was at fault. I don't apologise for the
flaming, though. A missing comma in the date is such a simple-to-allow-for
and likely-to-occur error that I still think C News is VERY wrong to drop
articles because of it.

>                  (People never seem to bother reading the specs before they
> devise their own whacko date format.)

Pot. Kettle. Bang.


mathew