Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Some possible fixes for the references line
Message-ID: <3248@looking.UUCP>
Date: 14 May 89 16:44:53 GMT
References: <3222@looking.UUCP> <3243@looking.UUCP> <283@xdos.UUCP>
Reply-To: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 24

Yes, I agree that both the root and immediate parent should be required if
you shorten the References line.

Another idea that I think might be valuable is to put in a placeholder
message-id when you delete some.  So if you have
	<1@a> <2@b> <3@c> ....  <26@z>
you might turn it into
	<1@a> <D> <26@z>

or somesuch, at the minimum.  Again, you should try to preserve sub-roots
wherever possible.  This lets back-following software know that items have
been deleted, and it should try other methods (like the history database)
to go backwards.


If we are going to have 'special' message-ids, any comments on whether it
is better to use things without, or outside the angle brackets, or to put
special codes inside the angle brackets.  Or both?

(Both because the <?> and <D> are truly special and should not be interpreted
by current software as a message id, while sub-root message-ids do need to
be interpreted by current software.)
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd.  --  Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473