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From: thomas@utah-gr.UUCP (Spencer W. Thomas)
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: What news really needs is *fast* finding of Message-ID's
Message-ID: <1397@utah-gr.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-Mar-85 13:00:36 EST
Article-I.D.: utah-gr.1397
Posted: Tue Mar 26 13:00:36 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 28-Mar-85 02:01:52 EST
References: <2608@garfield.UUCP>
Reply-To: thomas@utah-gr.UUCP (Spencer W. Thomas)
Distribution: net
Organization: Univ of Utah CS Dept
Lines: 23
Summary: 

In article <2608@garfield.UUCP> dave@garfield.UUCP (David Janes) writes:
>What is needed is some 
>fast method of finding an article file from a Message-ID in
>one's favorite news interface (i.e. rn.) and using that to 
>get 'included' articles.

I see two problems with this approach:
	1. the referenced message may have expired by the time someone
	   tries to read the message that references it.  The slow
	   propagation time of the network ensures that no scheme
	   will be able to prevent this.
	2. The referenced message may not have reached the place where
	   someone is trying to read the message the references it.  One
	   might call this the "Orphaned Response" problem (and the name
	   also is an existence proof!)

The nature of netnews is that no scheme that relies on cross-referencing
of messages will work reliably.

-- 
=Spencer   ({ihnp4,decvax}!utah-cs!thomas, thomas@utah-cs.ARPA)
	"The meaning and design of a problem seem not to lie in the solution,
	 but in our working at it incessantly." -- Jung