Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!motcsd!xdos!doug
From: doug@xdos.UUCP (Doug Merritt)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Some possible fixes for the references line
Message-ID: <283@xdos.UUCP>
Date: 13 May 89 14:36:47 GMT
References: <3222@looking.UUCP> <3243@looking.UUCP>
Reply-To: doug@xdos.UUCP (Doug Merritt)
Organization: Hunter Systems, Mountain View CA (Silicon Valley)
Lines: 29

In article <3243@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes:
>	References: line.   The next release of the usenet article format
>	will specify that the root message-id always be kept, that it is
>	advised that the immediate parent be kept, and that deletions should
>	come in the middle of the chain.

I hope this is just a suggestion, and not what's really going to happen.
If anything is kept at all, the immediate parent is what is critical.
It's the only thing that (disregarding pathological cases) allows
reconstruction of the chain.

For instance, for some reason lately I've been receiving news in many
groups in reverse order (1 2 3 4 5 is received and presented by rn
as 5 4 3 2 1). A smart news reader can figure out the right sequence
from the immediate parents on the References line, whereas if all you
require to be kept is the root message-id, then you've destroyed all
sequence info. Bogus!

Don't be so single-minded about thread-deletion, Brad. There are *other*
features that are important, too.

(Speaking of which, time for me to figure out how I used to get rn to
fix the sequencing; I've forgotten how that worked...)
	Doug
-- 
Doug Merritt		{pyramid,apple}!xdos!doug	doug@xdos.com
Member, Crusaders for a Better Tomorrow		Professional Wildeyed Visionary

"Of course, I'm no rocket scientist" -- Randell Jesup, Capt. Boinger Corps