Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
From: tneff@bfmny0.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: legal group names (was Re: Results of news.software.c newsgroup poll)
Message-ID: <14369@bfmny0.UUCP>
Date: 1 Jun 89 14:25:58 GMT
References: <428@qtc.UUCP> <58@herron.uucp> <2341@xenna.Xylogics.COM> <11756@udenva.cair.du.edu>
Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Organization: ^
Lines: 56

In article <11756@udenva.cair.du.edu> wedgingt@nike.cair.du.edu.UUCP (Will Edgington) writes:
>In article <2341@xenna.Xylogics.COM> loverso@Xylogics.COM (John Robert LoVerso) writes:
>]Newsgroup names shouldn't be bound in any way to the filename
>]restrictions of various operating systems.  Just because some other
>]"news" implementations uses such a scheme, doesn't mean that *all*
>]news implementations need to do that, especially those news
>]implementations on some so-called "operating systems" like that
>]"M"-word above.

Absolutely right.  UNIX in a sense has it "too easy" being able to sub
slashes for dots and take it from there.  Netnews ought in theory to be
runnable on an OS that doesn't even support tree structured directories.
(Just don't ask me to write the config file. :-) )

>]Use a file of newsgroup-to-filename mappings that's used to map
>]from a newsgroup name to a useable filename for the host operating
>]system.

Whether you actually drive the mapping off an index file or not is of
secondary importance to coming up with an ALGORITHM under each supported
OS to map newsgroup names to directory names (or the local equivalent).
Because after all, that index file not only has to be *generated* to
start with, it has to be *updated* as groups are added.  It would be
impracticable to expect each news knower to "make up" his own directory
names every time someone did a newgroup... and it would hurt consistency
net-wide especially in software support.

I have no idea what's in the cnews code, but something like

	int ngdir(char *buf, const char *groupname)

with a twisty maze of little #ifdef's would be what I have in mind.
The mapping for things like MS-DOS might not be easily reversable,
but News should have little need to reverse it anyway.  That's what
you use the index file for, if anything.

>Guess what ?  If you and your feed(s) cooperate a bit on this,
>you don't even have to write any new code.  The /usr/lib/aliases
>file on MSDOS could look like :
>
>comp.lang.c++			comp.lang.cplusplu
>comp.lang.reallylongname	comp.lang.unique
>
>... and your feed(s)'s /usr/lib/news/aliases like :
>
>comp.lang.cplusplu		comp.lang.c++
>comp.lang.unique		comp.lang.reallylongname

This is cute (and would get the job done now for dedicated DOS newsers)
but I don't feel as good about requiring lots of sites to reinvent the
wheel, as I do about providing some kind of consistent mapping to begin
with.

-- 
Tom Neff				UUCP:     ...!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
    "Truisms aren't everything."	Internet: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET