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From: mathew@mantis.co.uk (Giving C News a *HUG*)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.software.b
Subject: Re: Possible solution to C news dropping articles?
Message-ID: <HPN532w164w@mantis.co.uk>
Date: 6 Jun 91 16:01:40 GMT
References: <1024@fnx.UUCP>
Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK.
Lines: 24

news@fnx.UUCP (News Administrator) writes:
> So, I have an idea.  Why doesn't someone cobble up a test suite using the
> appropriate pieces of Cnews code?  A site could then run the test suite
> on a sample article to see if some site down the line would dump it on the
> floor.

That helps a bit, but it isn't really the whole solution. There's no
guarantee that the sample article will exhibit the error in question. For
example, if you are using rn and one of your users is in the habit of
leaving out the spaces after the colons in a newsgroup header, then all his
postings will be silently dropped, but your sample article will pass the
test suite with no problems.

One could use the test suite to check every article leaving the site, but
that may be difficult depending upon the software being used. Also note that
making the test suite sufficiently portable will be quite a challenge.

Issuing error reports is a more robust solution, and probably less effort
because you only have to make the code as portable as C News.


mathew