Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 GARFIELD 20/11/84; site garfield.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsri!garfield!dave From: dave@garfield.UUCP (David Janes) Newsgroups: net.news,net.news.notes Subject: Re: Information Overload and What We Can Do About It Message-ID: <3621@garfield.UUCP> Date: Mon, 23-Sep-85 06:46:42 EDT Article-I.D.: garfield.3621 Posted: Mon Sep 23 06:46:42 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 23-Sep-85 09:22:47 EDT References: <10381@ucbvax.ARPA> <28f87e10.1de6@apollo.uucp> <2355@sdcrdcf.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: Semi-Optimal Software Solutions (Inc.) Lines: 48 In article <2355@sdcrdcf.UUCP> lwall@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Larry Wall) writes: | I'd love to make rn run off of a multi-key dbm file. Who'll rewrite inews? I *have* rewritten inews and rnews totally from scratch and it does basically everything that Erik E. Fair suggested. It uses a different delivery system (for saving articles on the local site). It extensively uses dbm type files. Newsgroups are considered just another type of keyword. It is still in the final stages of debuging, and of course, will need 'real-world' testing. Source code for interested people in 4-8 weeks (depending on my work load.) It still needs an 'expire' program and a 'readnews' type program, which are the next things I will work on. A few details (I'll post more later, in a week or so): o I use ndbm for database functions. I *might* replace this with mdbm, depending... o The main program (rnews) is rather small: I have an extensive news handling library (which I use a lot, and is quite nice). o Almost all memory is dynamically allocated, headers can be of infinite length (if you have the memory.) No more truncated header problems. Headers can be extended across multiple lines. o It keeps track of all the followups to a single article in the ndbm file in (posting time) sorted order (along with other info). o It is essentially keywords based, only right now I use the Newsgroups: line as the keywords line, with an option to also use the Keywords: field (Brad Templeton's Knews). It would be trivial to add Bozo filters if needed, I didn't cause I felt it would be dangerous, and basically unnecessary (Bozo's tend to stick to the same conversations, which would get killed anyway.) o It can support a very intelligent 'expire' [soon to be done]. o lot's of other neat stuff! I have been working on this (on and off) for > 1 year. My main inspirations were the discussions in 'net.news' over the last 18 months, Knews (which it mostly implements), down!honey's ideas of news being a giant database (it is!), and the code in 2.10.2 Bnews (it had to be rewritten.) It will still need extra work for things like batching, etc. It also doesn't really care too much about Control: messages either, but that will be taken care of. Anyone interested? dave -- The UUCP: {utcsri,ihnp4,allegra,mcvax}!garfield!dave Mercenary INTERNET: dave@garfield.uucp Programmer CDNNET: dave@garfield.mun.cdn "There are two types of people in the world, those who divide the people of the world into two types, and those who can't" Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com